


An Unexpected Occurrence

by KingAlanI



Series: An Unexpected Occurrence [1]
Category: Hunger Games (2012), Hunger Games Series - All Media Types, Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Drama, F/M, Family, Pregnancy, Pregnant Sex, Romance, Teen Pregnancy, Teen Romance, Unplanned Pregnancy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-20
Updated: 2013-09-07
Packaged: 2017-12-03 09:24:25
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 23,382
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/696765
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KingAlanI/pseuds/KingAlanI
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>By Alan Gilfoy in the world of Suzanne Collins. AU. Katniss has a tryst with Gale after a canon 74th Games and ends up pregnant from it. First-person present-tense Katniss POV.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Hawthorne, We Have A Problem

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Dirty Little Lover](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/17724) by jioni2. 



> This story is inspired by Dirty Little Lover by jioni2 on FFN and is a sort of sequel to it. It's one of the first fics I read, especially as far as Gale/Katniss goes. The first paragraph of my story summarizes the events of that story.

I won the Hunger Games by faking love, but I had wondered if parts of the Peeta act were becoming real. Gale visited me in Victors Village soon afterwards, and he was hurt by my act with Peeta and how I had been changed by the Capitol. Fair enough. My doubts and his hurt were quashed as we realized we were right for each other after all. Caught up in the sudden realization of our love, we reveled in the heat of the moment. I realized I was fertile at the time, and meant to tell him to pull out. I had gotten cut off as our climaxes hit. Sure enough…

 

            I figured I’d talk to Mother first. “I’m late.”

            She went to work on confirming this. To her, the plant work was so simple, but I never could quite grasp that stuff. The test was positive. “So Peeta couldn’t wait, eh dear?”

“Please. The Mellark boy couldn’t even talk to me for eleven years; do you think he’d suddenly build up the courage to make _that_ move?,” I shot back.

“I always wondered if there was something romantic between you and Gale,” Mother said, quickly realizing what the only other plausible explanation was.

“There wasn’t, until recently,” I clarified. “Ironically, it took the ‘star-crossed lovers’ act with Peeta to bring us to our senses. That was a magical afternoon as we suddenly realized the truth and acted upon it. He was very good, and quite a gentleman,” I continued.

“Let’s see if he continues to act like that after hearing about this,” the elder Everdeen said haughtily.

I was taken aback by this worry that hadn’t even crossed my mind, and I replied “He’s such a devoted family man around his mother and siblings; why wouldn’t that carry over to his own child?” To me that seemed like stating the obvious; I hoped my gut instinct was right and not hers.

 

I saw a little girl poking her head around the wall – Prim acting much like how Rue had in the training center. “It’s Auntie Prim.” The words rolled off her tongue, quietly but confidently. You could not put anything past her, especially if had to do with both medicine and her big sister. “I’m happy for you, but if the Capitol finds out you lied to them…” She drew her hand across her throat. _Exactly_.

 

It would be a sensitive topic for both Peeta and Gale, so it seemed best to confront those young men separately. Peeta would be easy enough to find, just across the path in Victors Village, which ironically made that talk easier to put off. I’d have to find a good time to talk to Gale. The day after the conversation with Mother, we went hunting like usual. I didn’t want to distract us from our work, but really, I didn’t want to despoil the woods that were so special to us.

 

On the walk back home, I said, “Remember last month?”

“How could I forget?,” he said with a twinkle in his eye.

 _The laughs were about to stop_ , I thought as I cut him off. “Hawthorne, we have a problem - thanks to that, I’m pregnant. You wanted kids, now you’re about to get them.”

“Catnip, you know I’m still there for you. I’m still excited, even unexpected, this soon, and with _the Mellark complication_.” He sneered those last three words, and I couldn’t blame him. He went on with his mix of anger and tactics. “I’ll be the most dedicated _cousin_ Panem has ever seen. We can’t get away with giving it my name, but you aren’t giving it _his_ name either.”

I hadn’t even thought about naming it yet. However, ideas came quickly to me once he mentioned that. “Very well, it will simply be an Everdeen. If a boy, named after my father. If a girl, named after … Rue.”

“Jacob Everdeen the second. I like it too. And I figured that thing with the little girl was for real,” he said to agree with me. I appreciated understanding sentiment now if ever. “Considering everything else life in The Seam throws at us, we can weather this with a smile too…a 15-year-old being called ‘dada’?...I’m the closest thing to a father Posy will ever know…that’s where the experience and enthusiasm for _this one_ comes from.” He patted my belly as he said this.

“Yes, your family knows how good you are to them and how good you will be to another one,” I agreed. “Mother was relatively matter-of-fact about it. Prim was excited, but also understands what the stakes are – as you said, _the Mellark complication_ ,” I said to explain _my_ family’s reaction.

 

In a surprise move, he lifted me up effortlessly. It befit his strength, even as I was starting to approach a healthy weight unheard of in The Seam. I was reminded that myself and the child were safe in his hands, but Gale had a dual purpose in mind. I let myself go along for the ride; I did want his _touch_ again, and anyway, what’s the worst that could happen _now_? He carried me all the rest of the way to my Victors Village house.

 

Prim was in the doorway. “Nice haul today, eh, Big Man?,” she joked. _Very funny, Little Duck. ‘Big Man’ was Rory, Vick and Posy’s nickname for their oldest brother. To them, it referred to his height. To me, it referred to a different dimension of his_.

“Your sister is the best thing I’ve ever found in those woods,” Gale responded quite seriously. I’d stretch to give him a kiss for _that_. Our lips touched as we went through the doorway.

“Little Duck, why don’t you walk down the path a bit and drag our bags back with you. Leave them in the kitchen,” I suggested. I can’t believe we forgot about those, but Prim could manage them this time. _She probably had a clue what we were about to do – she is a very smart girl, after all. However I wanted to make the deniability somewhat plausible._

“Functional and _fun_. Very nice, Catnip,” Gale whispered, understanding perfectly. With me still in his arms, he found what I believe was the same bedroom we _used_ last time. He laid me down on the floor as he flopped back onto the bed. We weren’t going to stay still for long. Father’s jacket was the first thing to come off. I opened my tunic and said, “Sometimes you have such nice things to say about my eyes - well, what do you think about these orbs?”

“They’re on you! More proof of how beautiful you really are. Even without Capitol finery. Especially without Capitol finery,” he answered. _He was right; I hadn’t been looking like the real me._ More succinctly, he started working at his belt. I tickled him while unbuttoning his shirt. While I got at the firm skin, he returned the favor on some of my softest parts. I squirmed again as he massaged those breasts with his hands instead of mouth this time. He started kissing his way down the rest of my body. “Looks like the damn Capitol style team left _some_ body hair alone,” he said to joke about my lady garden.

“Yeah, my arms and legs getting waxed was quite enough, thankyouverymuch,” I agreed. _Since my crotch was hidden under the costumes, I had eventually gotten Octavia, Venia and Flavius to leave it alone. They were professionals, I had to give them that despite all I disliked about them, but I hadn’t wanted anybody else touching me_ there.

I had since made an exception for Gale. “I am experienced at carefully treading through the bush,” he said with a naughty smile. He started thrusting fingers inside of me while his other hand flicked at my button. _Oh yes._ Then he started flicking at my sweet spot with his tongue, and I was even more ecstatic.

 

I slowly lowered myself down onto him. This was already our second time, but even a woman much further from virginity would have been careful with this tool. This still took some getting used to, and was still oh so worth it. Like the last time, my initial pain slowly turned to pleasure and we sped up. I found my release and found it again before he did. “Now you’re really a girl on fire in her best outfit – or lack thereof” is what came out of his gifted mouth as he spilled his seed inside of me, and taking his load didn’t matter this time.

 

We collapsed onto the bed and started running our fingers through each other’s hair. As we rested next to each other, he whispered, “We’ve never felt better than in each other’s grasp. This was meant to be, and I think part of us knew all along.” _So right_.


	2. Making Mellark Mad

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Katniss tells the guy she’s supposedly in love with that she’s pregnant by the guy she’s really in love with. Both young men pass along their families’ reactions.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Previously in An Unexpected Occurrence: Gale expresses his anger over Katniss' act with Peeta. He professes his love for her. Katniss was starting to think the act with Peeta might not just be an act, but realizes her heart lies with Gale. She gets pregnant from their afternoon of passion. Mrs. Everdeen, Prim and Gale all take the news very well.

After another wonderful afternoon in bed with Gale, I didn’t care that I had forgotten to tell Peeta., yet I obviously had to tell him eventually. Tomorrow, I would tell the guy I’m pretending to be in love with that I’m pregnant by the guy I’m really in love with. Fun. But as Gale had said earlier, _“Considering everything else life in The Seam throws at us, we can weather this with a smile too.”_

  
            Mother stewed some of the rabbit from today’s catch. We went to bed soon after it was eaten and cleaned up. This was all in a mansion instead of a shack, but it was one of those moments that made me think things hadn’t really changed much, maybe even changed for the better. I tried not to dwell on the ways in which things getting worse.

Everdeen

 

Over breakfast, Prim said, “you’ll have the best medical mind in the district with you – Mommy!”

Mother responded by talking business with her youngest. “Prim, I figured it would be time for you to learn about this stuff eventually, but I hadn’t thought it would be this soon or with your sister as the patient.”

I was rather surprised myself, and I said it. “It’s definitely an unexpected occurrence – I wondered if I’d ever have kids at all, let alone this soon.” I had some more ideas for how to deal with it. “Maybe just the two of you should appear by my side – both Gale and myself want to keep Peeta at arm’s length, and Gale or any of his family being around could give away the secret.”

Mother liked that idea… “Sounds like a plan.” …and realized a complication. “But dear, when you’re five months along, you’ll have to leave to go on the Victory Tour.” _Supposedly the Victory Tour is about celebrating the last winner. Six months later, the Capitol parades the winner throughout Panem to make sure the country cannot forget the Games. Even without the pregnancy, I was not looking forward to it – we’d be facing the families of those we’d killed. Also, Rue talked about her relatives plenty, and now I’d have to meet them without her._

“I already was beyond not excited about that,” I replied.

“Maybe they’ll let us come along to attend to you.” Mom said this hopefully, and it was a great idea, but I was skeptical.

“I’d get to skip school and be with my mom and big sister?” Nothing but enthusiasm from our Little Duck.

Prim’s reaction frankly softened me a bit, just a bit. This was reflected in how I spoke to my mother now. “I still won’t forget the months after the mine explosion. I’m a sixteen-year-old and a particularly tough one. But right now I still need my mommy.” Prim had never been caught up in my bitterness, and she initiated a group hug at this tender moment.

“My two wonderful girls,” Mother said simply. She was gradually realizing that she needed to care for the girls that were still here rather than be immobilized by the loss of the man that’s gone.

 

Mellark

 

Early in the afternoon, I saw Peeta outside. We naturally started walking through Victors Village together. I didn’t want to hit him with the pregnancy news right away, so I started off relatively gradually. “I said I wasn’t sure whether I loved you,” I started.

“You thought it was real sometimes and you know it,” he said, in a surprisingly confident tone of voice. _True enough_.

“Well, now my heart is sure … I love Gale Hawthorne,” I said. I had started to deliver the truth – painful to him, oh so pleasant to me.

He recovered from the blow almost too quickly. “Wait, so you two are that kind of cousin?,” he joked.

 _I don’t love him, but I still didn’t want to lead him along like this._ “No, some unknown genius made that up to make _our_ relationship seem more plausible,” I clarified.

“I love you so much that I’ll cling to even the ‘star-crossed lovers’ act,” he said hopefully.

“If you had an atom of firmness in the years before the Games, it could have been you. Well, I’m pregnant by him now,” I said flatly. Surely that would discourage him.

 “I don’t have to pretend to love you; I won’t have to pretend to love your child, even though it isn’t mine. Let’s see what Cinna can do with maternity wear,” he said, still positive. _I hadn’t thought of that, but I’m sure he’d work his magic on pregnancy clothes like he would with anything else_.

I went off on a bit of monologue. “Keeping up appearances will be especially important on the Victory Tour, of course. The Tour was already going to be hard even without knowing that my heart and child are Gale’s. Maybe it will be a bit easier if they let my mother, or maybe my mother and Prim, come with me. I don’t think we could be honest with the Capitol; even Haymitch or Gale couldn’t figure out a way to make that work. If or when the time comes, neither of us can come off as the villain. But I will say this: your pain can be alleviated by a kiss…” He leaned in. “…from another woman. Thing is, all the females we know are too young or too old, and you trying to date, especially right now, would be like walking around the mines with a lighter.” _Even a townie would understand how dangerous that is._ “Make her feel sorry for you without making me look bad? It seems pathetic to play you for a fool like this.”

His response was “I knew as soon as I laid eyes and ears on you, but never did anything about it. I won’t make that mistake again. My mother and brothers will hear the same lie everyone else does, but my father will get the truth.”

 

Hawthorne

 

Gale was the first to get back to me with what his family had said. “Rory said, ‘So you finally picked one, Big Man. Congratulations.’ However, I had known it for awhile, and the Capitol almost took you from us before I had a good chance to say it.” _I did expect his love for me to be intertwined with his hatred for the Capitol, and Peeta is a hard person to dislike._

It was understood without saying that we had been preoccupied with far weightier matters, so I explained “I was clueless, I had seen how love wrecked my mother…”

He interrupted me. “It was the lack of love that wrecked her. She was happy, and her so-called family abandoned her.”

 _He had a point_ “Yes, that certainly made things even worse,” I replied. I continued on a positive note. “Well, you would have been the man of my dreams if I had time for such dreams.”

“We match each other so well,” we said in unison.

I started making direct comparisons. “Peeta did rise to the occasion instead of descending into drink or death, but that boldness comes naturally to you. Having some time with him ironically makes clearer my feelings for you, since I’m not left wondering what it might have been like. He’s not the guy for me, but I can see how he would appeal to some other gal some day.”

Gale got back on topic by talking about his other brother. “Vick was speculating on the details. I don’t know where an eleven-year-old learned words like that. I told him to grow up. But I did hear the one thing I wanted when Ma said ‘You’ve been so good with your little sister’.” _That_ would _mean an awful lot to him_. “Speaking of that little girl, she’s too young to know what’s going on either way, which does help us keep things quiet – one less person in the loop who needs to watch their mouth.”

“I’m so sorry you can’t appear too close to your own little one and its mother,” I said.

He spit out his response. “Don’t I know it – the other Hawthornes are also excited while knowing that we have to keep the ‘cousin’ story plausible.”

“I won’t let Peeta get too close for the sake of the act – it will help in many ways that Ma and Prim can be right by my side – maybe they can even come on the Victory Tour with me.” The more I talked about them as traveling companions, the more I wanted to make it happen.

 

Mellark Again

 

Peeta wasn’t too far behind; he showed up soon after Gale left. “Dad said, ‘I was happy for you, but I was afraid of that’. The others made sarcastic comments like ‘about time!’.”

I was angry on his behalf. “Another chance for your so-called mother to be a bitch, and I’m not surprised that your brothers are busting your chops – they're no strangers to _extracurricular activities_ behind the schoolhouse.”

“Yeah, but Gale’s kissfests back there are the stuff of legend – I guess that’s another way in which us Mellarks don’t measure up to Hawthorne,” he said morosely.

I tried to make him feel better by saying “Ah, c’mon. You showed the best side of yourself in the arena and afterwards, when so many people show their worst. You’re a great guy, and we’ll never forget the bread. You’re just not that kind of guy for me. Gale felt like a total match for my personality even before all this. I’m sure another girl will be thrilled to have you some day.”

 “I hope so.” He smiled as he said, “We do have to get in character for the Victory Tour.” _That show for the Capitol is where we’d most need to keep up the act._

“I may be looking at you, but I’ll be thinking of him,” I said, which wiped the grin right off his face.

“If that’s what it takes…but you didn’t need thoughts of Hawthorne to look like my lover in the arena…my butt is on the line here too,” he said, again more confident than he had been all these years. _Fair enough._

“Where was this fire in you in the years before the reaping?,” I wondered.

“I know what you mean; I’ll always be asking myself that question. You of all people would know how the Games wreak havoc on one’s mind, but those moments of you loving me back, real or not real, were still a highlight of my life,” he answered.

“It was my first taste of love as well,” I said quite truthfully.

“Well, I can’t imagine the kid having a better mother,” he complimented. “You already showed the whole country what kind of a sister you are.” _Gale thought so too, and I was thinking the same of him as its father. Both the actual father and the purported one were certainly doing their part to calm my own fears._


	3. A Day In The Woods

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Katniss and Gale go through the District Twelve marriage ritual in the forest that is so dear to them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Previously in An Unexpected Occurrence: Gale professes his love for Katniss while angry over her act with Peeta. Katniss, thinking the act with Peeta might be real, realizes her heart lies with Gale. She gets pregnant from their afternoon of passion. Mrs. Everdeen, Prim, Gale and Peeta all take the news very well, and the guys pass along their families' reactions. Katniss and the others start to discuss plans for the Victory Tour.

            I would still visit the woods for as long as I’m able to. With my victor winnings and Parcel Day, it was less necessary to go hunting these days. However, in these past few years it had gone even beyond needing the food, even beyond spending time with Gale. Speaking of him, he was waiting just inside the fence, and said “We needed the food and I still need you, but these trips into the woods have become even more than that. Though I’m old enough for the mines now, I just couldn’t do it. I’d make a few more coins by trading heaven for hell, but you have more money than we’ll ever need. You’ve given me life in so many ways.”

            “I know the feeling; we’re almost always on the same page, after all,” I replied.

            “And of course, I can’t risk having our kid end up like Posy, a father stolen by the mines even before birth. That kid will not have to live the hard life we did,” he said, burning with even higher than usual intensity.

            “If the odds permit. If being a Victor turns out to actually be the prize that the Capitol wants us to think it is,” I mused.

 

            We eventually got down to business, and what good business it was. This was a day when we had time to go far afield, and it was worth it. Gale’s snares were full, and I managed to land arrows in much of the small game that had avoided them.

 

We turned around at a lake deep into the woods, and Gale called out “I found you!” I looked in the direction of his voice to notice green arrowhead leaves and triple-petal white flowers with a purple center. _The katniss plant I was named after. Very funny, Gale,_ I thought, but I really did smile. That plant also had edible blue roots – as my father had said, _find yourself and you’ll never starve._ I handed Gale my forage bag, which already had a few berries and some medicinal herbs. He stuffed it full of those blue potatoes.

 

We still weren’t done – we ran across a flock of wild turkeys and I hit one in the neck as the rest ran away. _What’s that, a deer? The game is just getting bigger._ Gale instinctively got especially still and quiet as I lined up for the kill. The air was still, so I didn’t need to throw a clump of dirt into the air to gauge the direction of the nonexistent breeze. The buck was running away from us at an angle. It was the graceful motion of a beautiful creature. Even imbued with necessity, even after killing people, I still didn’t like doing this. It turned, exposing its side for a shot right in the middle. We ran up to the kill, my bow going up and down in my hand like a baton. Gale reached the body at about the same time I did. “Such a beautiful shot from such a beautiful lady,” he said and I smiled. _What part of the compliment was I responding to?_

 

This was a lot of meat, but thanks to the Capitol refrigerator and freezer in my Victors Village house, we wouldn’t have to rush to get rid of it. We didn’t mind working with Rooba the butcher, but although she made reasonable deals, she refused to haggle. We figured we might as well bide our time.

 

“I know why you really want Prim and Ingrid on the Victory Tour,” he said while we were walking.

Very well, then. I explained that “Mother has been coming out of her depressive shell…and…well, I’m scared and by definition she’s done this before. Also, everyone else’s excitement is helping calm me down, including you, but also including the aunt-to-be.”

“That’s clear enough, but everybody will see what the Capitol tried to take away. Everybody in Twelve loves Prim,” he said quite truthfully. “Now the whole country will. And it will all be cloaked in family togetherness or perhaps jealousy of the relatively lucky ones.”

 

While continuing our walk back, Gale led us past a familiar spot, the place where we had met about four years ago. There were still traps there, although maybe not the same exact ones I stumbled across that fateful day. He knelt down, but checking the snares isn’t what he had in mind. “Will you marry me?,” he said.

Most girls would be squealing right now. However, I was not ‘most girls’, and he loved me all the more for it. The act with Peeta had led him to declare his love sooner than expected, and I wondered if this very real situation had inspired too soon of a proposal. “Gale, you don’t have to do this,” I stammered.

“It’s not just about the baby. It’s about you. I already loved you. I knew you were the one since just a few months after we met. But it wasn’t the right time and I didn’t know how to say it until after the Games – and, boy, did we say it. We already shared everything but the physical, and adding that blew my mind,” he said with the confidence I had long since expected from him, someone else who would dare head beyond the fence. _I was in for a wild ride with this charmer, and I know I’m going to like it. I never thought I was susceptible to that, but I’ve been hit with a lot of surprises these past several weeks. His reply perfectly assuaged my fears. We had learned to completely fit each other in our years working together; in retrospect, it seemed odd that this particular fit had eluded us until just recently._

             “Yes.” _This was the statement of a confident young woman, not a girl who was too scared to speak her name clearly._

 

            I dragged the loaded bags back to Victors Village. “This was no ordinary hunting trip,” I said while announcing my arrival.

            “I can see that,” Mother replied while gesturing to the haul.

“Not only that. Gale popped the question,” I clarified.

            “And?” Mother was somewhat bemused.

            When I told Mother the news, I passed along none of the doubt and hesitation that had been running through my own head at the time. “Of course I said yes. I’m in love and don’t care what other people think. You would understand.”

            “Yes I do, dear. But although those were some amazing years I did pay for it,” he said.

            “But what about the Capitol and Peeta?,” Prim interjected. _There you are, Little Duck._

            “I know we can’t make it official,” I said to state the obvious. “Peeta knows he isn’t my real star-crossed lover, but I want to keep this quiet from him at least for now. Gale proposed at the very spot where we met, so of course we’d go through the ritual there,” I continued.

            Mother offered confident confirmation. “I’ll be there. _I_ won’t skip _my_ daughter’s wedding…but I haven’t been in the woods since I was dating your father.” Also, I could tell Prim was excited, although this wedding would be simple even by District Twelve standards.

 

            We generally couldn’t make two trips into the woods on the same day, so the wedding was set for tomorrow if Gale got the message, which of course he would.

 

            As I met up with Gale in the meadow the next day, he was walking with just Rory and their mother. Prim and Mother were right behind me and he saw them. I asked, “Where are your other siblings?”

            “This wedding party is large enough. Vick can be left alone with Posy for at least a little while without too much incident,” he explained. “Also, the wedding reception menu will be whatever we catch after the ceremony.” _That’s Gale, never one to pass up a hunting opportunity._

 

            We all had relatively nice clothes on under a layer of street clothes. We snuck into the woods in waves, then changed. We gathered and started walking deeper into the forest. I pointed out our grove and we walked to it in formation – backed by our siblings, flanked by our mothers. The ritual statements were second nature to our mothers, and they read them together. It ended with “Will you honor and cherish the one you’ve chosen, throughout all the highs and lows this life presents you with?”

            We responded in unison: “I will.”

            Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Prim wave to Rory. As I was kissed for the first time as a wife, she was kissed for the first time at all.

 

I smiled as I said “I see what you did there, Little Duck!”

She was brimming with cheer as she said “He is cute … and nice … and I see why you love Gale so much.”

I explained “If he’s anything like his brother, watch out for a wild ride. Somebody’s got a crush, and somebody didn’t wait 11 years to do something about it.”

            Prim needled Gale with “Or four for that matter.”

            Gale grudgingly admitted “You have a point” and then spoke to his little brother.  
“Little Man, I always wanted to make sure you behaved around the ladies when the time came, but especially this one, got it? I know what’s most important to my significant other – the person that is now your significant other. Well, if Prim is anything like her sister, you aren’t going to be able to think of anything else.”

            “Not only that, but me and the little angel wanted to join our big siblings in secret,” Rory explained.

            “That’s the sweetest thing I ever heard. Apparently, my sister is just as charmed as I am,” I chimed in.  
            Game moved on to the next event on the schedule. “We’ll see about that, but I think that’s a game we’ll all win. Now, my wife, we aren’t really unofficially married until that bread gets warmed up.”

            I explained that tradition for the benefit of Prim and Rory. “ _My husband_ , you’re right. We all know no one in District Twelve really feels married until the toasting, the newlyweds breaking bread over a fire in their new home. These woods are what really feel like our home, not the shacks in the Seam or the mansions in Victors Village.”  
            He agreed with my closing thought. “Absolutely…now, I think that spot over there would make a good fire pit.” _Far enough away from anything else that would catch, while also able to hide the smoke._ He built up a pile of wood shavings and laid some twigs against each other on top of the pile. I rubbed two pieces of wood against each other to generate a spark for it. The fire gradually came to life. This was an important lesson for Prim and Rory in outdoor skills, even without being part of their siblings’ wedding – granted, the significance of the occasion helped them get the point. The bread was in my bag – though I could now afford the good stuff, we made it from my last remaining heaps of low-quality tessera grain.

            “Tesserae loaves?,” Gale said, surprised by my menu planning.

            I explained to my actual lover my sympathy for my supposed lover. “Yeah, the point is, made by someone besides Peeta Mellark. The kid’s being cuckolded enough as is. I have no doubt that I love you, but I don’t want to hurt him any more than necessary.”

 

He blew the wood dust off his knife and began to slice the bread with it. Only the couple has their bread toasted, so he handed plain slices to the other members of the wedding party. It was a little fire, but our bread crisped quickly enough. These feelings were the best way to make that tessera trash taste good, and we did need that bread as a reminder of where we’ve been.

 

            In a way, everything had changed this day in the woods. On the other hand, maybe nothing had changed, and October 7th just recognized the way things had been all along.


	4. Vinegar Moon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things are getting better for Katniss, Gale and their families, but it’s starting to get even worse for the rest of their district.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Previously in An Unexpected Occurrence: Gale professes his love for Katniss while angry over her act with Peeta. Katniss, thinking the act with Peeta might be real, realizes her heart lies with Gale. She gets pregnant from their afternoon of passion. Mrs. Everdeen, Prim, Gale and Peeta all take the news very well, and the guys pass along their families’ reactions. Katniss and the others start to discuss plans for the Victory Tour. Katniss and Gale have a secret wedding in the woods.

Prim and Rory walked out of the woods hand in hand. Our mothers shared the load in carrying away the leftovers from our moderately successful hunting trip. We walked towards the fence with them and saw them leave, but did not go with them. Gale and I would spend the night in the woods together - we didn’t want to go home alone or head back to either of our houses together. For us ‘people will talk’ was an issue of life or death rather than mere social stigma. People would wonder what I was doing at his Seam shack; people might wonder why he made a trip to my Victors Village mansion.

 

Victors had the option of inviting relatives to Victors Village with them. I obviously brought Prim and Mother. I had gotten back a month and a half ago and only now thought of inviting the Hawthornes. Peeta was alone. He didn’t want his mother with him. Who would want to be near Priscilla Mellark, really? Mr. Phillip Mellark probably didn’t, but he didn’t seem to have the guts to say it and take this opportunity. Peeta liked one of his brothers more than the other, but didn’t want to play favorites.

“Would the Hawthornes like to move in with their ‘cousins’?” I asked.

            “Well, there’s one ‘cousin’ this Hawthorne wants to move into,” he said, flirting instead of answering. _Well, it is our wedding night._ “Want to go to the lake again?” he asked.

            “Yes, yes, yes!,” I screamed, and Gale nearly doubled over laughing at my exaggeration of a girl almost catatonic with joy. As we went deeper into the woods, we spent much of the walk chatting like companions instead of lusting like lovers.

 

            Yet once the lake was in eyesight, Gale said “I have a question.”

            “What is it, my love?” I answered.  
            “Why are our clothes still on?” he asked with a mischievous smirk.

            “Why indeed?” I said while unlacing and kicking off my boots. “No one will see us, and if someone did, we’d have far bigger problems.” He shucked off most of his clothes quickly. I decided to make a game of it – there were far worse games to play. He sat down on the lakeshore in only his undershorts, bracing himself with his arms on the ground while he gazed up at my standing semi-clothed form. We were both secure in the fact that I was the only thing he thought about, especially at a moment like this. His manhood certainly didn’t lie, making a pavilion out of the cloth of his undershorts. The organ only strained the fabric more while I removed my clothing as slowly as possible. The jacket, the shirt, the pants, the bra, the panties. The look of total desire in his eyes, not just below his waist, only made me want to stretch out the routine longer, to bask in the glow I was giving him. The fall air across my chest combined with the anticipation of seeing _his_ clothes fully disappear made my nipples very stiff. His shorts finally disappeared, and he made fast strides towards me with his erection swinging menacingly.

            “Why don’t we _go for a swim?_ ,” he suggested. The water was cool but not icy at this time of year, so I gladly waded in and looked back to see him follow. As usual, I quickly dove below the surface to acclimate myself to the water. I rose back up with Gale’s hands on me. _On land or in water, he had a way of being able to sneak up on even me._ My braid had come free earlier, and he pasted the loose wet hair against my back. “That,” he panted, “was the sexiest thing I’d ever seen, the way you took your time showing off your beauty.”

            His hands now rested on my hips as I answered “It meant I got to look at you longer”.

            “I bet you want to do more than look now,” he said hoarsely while pulling my body closer and breathing on my earlobes. The tingling sensation his breathing introduced above my neck was nothing compared to the cauldron of feelings below my waist. I started to turn around, the lake bottom sand squishing between my toes. However, he planted his legs around and in front of mine. I desperately wanted to finish turning around and spread for him, but he held me tight. He lined up against my pink front from behind and pushed. With my legs clamped together, our third time felt even tighter than our first. _Oh yes, it felt even better this way_. I would have doubled over in pleasure-pain if it wasn’t for his strong arms wrapped around my breasts. The water between us only amplified the feel of his powerful thrusts as our moving bodies made waves. I shivered as he lifted me slightly. I felt his seed pump into me, and that brought on a second climax. He slid out and turned me around to gaze into my eyes. “This time was even more amazing,” he said, still out of breath.

 

Even after I started swimming across the deeper water, Gale merely stood in the shallows – he had barely known of the lake, let alone spent days upon days practicing swimming in it. However, he had a far more romantic explanation. “I couldn’t much gaze upon your beauty if my head was bobbing to the left and then to the right with each push through the water.”

 

            Eventually it was starting to get dark and I swam towards a place shallow enough to stand, and started wading towards the shore. “There are a couple packets of soap with the rest of my things,” I told Gale. He waded out to fetch them and waded back to me. We could easily wash ourselves, but it was so much more fun this way. The water was slightly cold rather than boiling hot, but under the moonlight and touched by the hands I most trusted besides my own, I couldn’t really think of a better bathtub.

 

            We decided to spend the night itself in that little cabin by the lakeside. I felt a cool fall breeze through the broken window, but I also felt the heat from his skin - just the two of us out in the woods, like it should be. We put some of our clothes and blankets down over the cold concrete floor and piled the rest on top of us, but our bodies remained in full contact with each other.

 

            In the morning, he said “I met you as a young girl, you grew into a strong willed woman, filled with fire but still with an angel’s heart. I eventually knew you were destined to be my bride. I saw the passion in your eyes.”

 

“And in answer to your question, I would gladly leave that shack behind. It’s the people in it that matter, and I’ll mention it to them today,” he continued. The five of them would be most welcome, and not just as a way for me to be closer to Gale. They deserved better than a flimsy shack – most everyone did, really, but I could only invite family. Even the three of us felt lonely in a house that could hold dozens. The village felt lifeless – a forty year old drunk and a sweet sixteen year old boy just as lonely.

 

“Ma thinks it’s a great idea,” Gale said the next day about the move.

“I bet Rory does too. Twelve years old and already moving in with his girlfriend,” I joked.

“Well, that,” Gale admitted, also amused. “Almost thirteen, as he’ll be glad to tell you. But Ma and all three of the kids adore you too. Posy’s jumping up and down because she heard how pretty the houses are, and let’s face it – the Hawthorne shack is a house full of boys; she’ll like having girls like you and Prim around.”

 

The very next day after that, they walked down the road to Victors Village carrying their meager possessions. Haymitch stumbled out his front door, bottle of white liquor in hand, and screamed “Welcome to the neighborhood!”

“He’s scary and he smells funny,” Posy observed. She was right – in addition to the stench of alcohol on his breath, he sorely needed a bath, and none of us wanted to give him one. Maybe Hazelle could at least decontaminate his clothes.

Peeta was the funny one who smelled nice – ever since he and Caesar joked about the Capitol showers, the scent manufacturers sent plenty of free samples. The trains always had a small amount of luxury Capitol imports in addition to the subpar supplies Snow suffered to succor us with. For some reason Haymitch didn’t order fancy Capitol booze – maybe he was too drunk to taste it anyway, so it didn’t matter. Peeta liked to see what the Capitol had to offer by way of art supplies and baking equipment.

Peeta brought over a huge cake he’d baked for the Hawthorne housewarming party. It was a yellow circle frosted in alternating pink and blue – five pink wedges for myself, Prim, Mother, Hazelle and Posy, five blue for himself, Gale, Rory, Vick and Haymitch. “Abernathy occasionally puts things in his mouth besides white liquor bottles,” Peeta explained. The younger Hawthornes’ eyes went wide – even one slice for the whole family would have been well beyond their meager budget, and now each one of them had a slice all to themselves. It was a great way to welcome them. Posy especially liked the color, staring at the globs of frosting on her fingers before licking them clean. “Katniss is eating for two, but I couldn’t figure out how to do eleven slices,” Peeta announced.

“Way to go, boy!” a surprised Haymitch screamed.

“No, blame Gale,” Peeta admitted.

“What?” Haymitch said a confusion that went even beyond his usual drunken stupor.

“Yeah…we never told you…sorry about that,” I stammered. “Makes the Victory Tour even more fun,” I said sarcastically. “Can Prim and Mother come with me?” I added hopefully.

“I don’t see why not,” Haymitch replied. “You travel with stylists, you can travel with healers.” He was well aware of my mother’s medical work, and that’s all we referred to in front of talkative kids and potential Capitol listening devices. “However, the Capitol might have other ideas,” he whispered to me.

“Well, I have other ideas for them,” I whispered back.

 

I still wasn’t showing, except to the people closest to me. I doubt anyone besides the Everdeens, Hawthornes, Mellarks and Abernathy knew. I had been at home or in the woods all the times I vomited, so that gave no clue. Mother said the sickness was quite normal at this point in the pregnancy and the worst of it would be over in a few weeks.

 

Mother still took in patients and Hazelle still took in laundry, even with us separated by a mile from the rest of the district. They didn’t want to let down any past customers, and besides, what else was there to do all day? My wealth allowed them to work cheap, and gave them plenty of supplies and space to work with.

 

Gale was right – Posy loved being around me and Prim, but Prim even more loved being the big sister for a change. Little Duck was watching the little flower while Hazelle did laundry, and Hazelle gazed approvingly upon the pair after getting back from the washroom. “Ingrid, your youngest is a natural,” she said to my mother. “I think she’s going to absolutely adore her niece or nephew,” Mrs. Hawthorne said while patting my belly.

 

The first day of November, myself and the other two Victors went to the Justice Building to pick up this month’s tribute winnings. We each got the equivalent of 25 gold pieces – 20 gold, 100 silver and 400 bronze. All were new, and all had the Capitol seal on the front with our district’s seal on the back. We would have been lucky to scrape up that much in tarnished coins over a year. More importantly, it was Parcel Day – for once, The Capitol delivered a healthy amount of food to the whole district – small treats for people to take with them, and bulk containers of supplies like flour which were left back at the train station for now. The Hawthornes had freaked out over that cake, and they were one of the better-off families in The Seam, so the kids with ribs showing went absolutely wild. It was one the few times I felt good about what I had done in the arena.

 

I spread the wealth amongst our Hob friends. I paid off the girls that Cray left out in the cold – as long as I left him a few a night, he didn’t complain.

 

            One day Gale and I separated after a hunt, me to take some strawberries to Madge and him to take a wild turkey to Cray; then we’d meet back up at the Hob for the usual trading. However, he came running much quicker than expected, before I had even reached the mayor’s house. Once he caught his breath, he said “I was about to drop off the wild turkey, but that shit’s not Cray. I got suspicious when the long line of desperate young girls was nowhere to be seen.” _Something_ was _wrong!_

           

The Capitol would of course not let the tortured District Twelve live in relative peace, having found a way to make things even worse. We saw him the next morning. It was Cray’s familiar Head Peacekeeper uniform, occupied by a very unfamiliar body, a very scary one even before he lifted a finger.

He introduced himself as Romulus Thread, and he lifted far more than just a finger. We recognized some of the Peacekeepers as our Hob friends, and they looked as put off as we were. Cray was dragged to the town square by Peacekeepers that appeared to be some of Thread’s handpicked strongmen. Cray looked even less impressive out of uniform. “My predecessor tolerated far too much lawbreaking, and gave such leadership to his subordinates – treason if intentional, massive incompetence if unintentional,” Thread intoned. “Either way, his sentence is death.” Thread drew a pistol and delivered that sentence himself. An audible gasp went through the crowd at the sound of the gunshot. Some girls abused by Cray cheered his death, along with some of their relatives, but it seemed Thread would bring abuse far more widespread than a slimy middle-aged man climbing over a few girls. “Bring in the next prisoner,” Thread ordered. It was a one-armed woman – Ripper, the Hob’s white liquor vendor. Cray had been the district’s second-biggest drunk after Haymitch, so perhaps Ripper had made the same mistake Gale nearly did – attempting to sell to Thread thinking he was Cray. Thread announced the charge as “Manufacture, sale and transport of intoxicating liquors for beverage purposes”. She was sentenced to be whipped. Thread gleefully reached for the implement on his belt. Thread’s goons tied her up and left her back exposed. Our new Head Peacekeeper brought the whip down again and again. The repeated cracks introduced more fear than the single crack of the firearm that did old Cray in. Ripper soon collapsed from the torture, and this only intensified Romulus’ desire to keep swinging. Purnia, one of the Peacekeepers friendly to us, eventually said that was enough, and the new Head agreed, having the goons loosen Ripper’s bonds.

We only dared approach her once they had cleared out. “Not Ripper!” Haymitch muttered.

“It’s hopeless,” my mother said of the moonshiner’s torn skin. “Her breathing and pulse is already ragged, barely present.” Soon enough, Ripper was pronounced dead. Peacekeepers had herded us into the town square as if it was reaping day, and sure enough, two had been sentenced to die.

 

I still saw Madge around town, so apparently her father was still in office. I had to whisper to her about the recent occurrences. “My father’s still popular around here,” she suggested. “Cray wasn’t, so the Capitol must have found it particularly easy to replace him.”

 

Thread’s men, and I use that word loosely, set up implements of torture in the square. They put up an actual whipping post instead of that impromptu structure they had lashed Ripper to. Thread had made an example of her – most received a few swings, still very painful but hardly enough to kill. There was a gallows to use in place of a firing squad. One Jack Barton was dragged up there for treason of some sort. The details were unspecified, all the better to strike fear into the population since there was so much that the Capitol considered treason against it. The structure was barely high enough to hold his feet off the ground, and the noose slowly strangled him. There were other devices simply meant to restrain people for public humiliation.

 

With Ripper dead, Haymitch was quickly drinking his way through his reserve stockpile. Abernathy had intended to cover temporary interruptions in supply, not permanent ones. Mother figured it was a way to ease what would be a very unpleasant crash. Once his supply ran out, his nightmares, hallucinations and tremors got even worse; it was good he was in another house. Mother needed both Gale and Peeta as armed guards to go check on Haymitch. “I can’t imagine why Priscilla wouldn’t be proud of a boy like you,” she said to the youngest Mellark. _That must mean the world to him; my mother was fast becoming the mother had never had, and perhaps he was the son she had never had._ “My sister is also named Priscilla. She’s also a witch.” Once they entered the house, the two young men held down Haymitch as Mother administered sedatives.

 

November 14th was Rory’s thirteenth birthday, as he was glad to remind us. Peeta, sweet soul that he was, had a cake ready for him. It came out of a long rectangular pan and was topped with thirteen candles – four at the top, four at the bottom and five in a middle row. Rory cut the first piece and handed it to Prim. Once she finished it, she gave Rory thirteen kisses – six on each cheek and one on the lips. “Guess it runs in the family, Little Duck,” I told her.

 

With Thread’s crackdown, going to the Hob was out of the question, let alone the woods. However, I knew exactly where I could go – Gale’s room, as I had several times before. I decided to get completely naked before sliding into his bed. “Am I still dreaming?” he mumbled as he stirred. _Lucky you, to have dreams of love. I had nightmares of the arena – the tracker jacker swarm, Rue’s death, those victims reincarnated as mutts._

“No. I’m very real. You still smell like the forest,” I said to answer and explain why I was here.

“And so do you, Catnip.” My hands worked their way over to Gale’s side to find nothing but bare skin. He felt the touch and explained himself. “I wasn’t even expecting you tonight. It’s just that with such thick blankets, I can afford to sleep in the nude, and I’m gladly taking advantage of a luxury for once in my life.” All of the Hawthornes were still somewhat amazed by the conditions in Victors Village.

He turned over onto his side and wrapped his arms around my midsection, right between my breasts and my belly. I gladly turned to match his position. As I slid closer, I said “I couldn’t sleep.” Yet pressed up against him, I could, and did so nearly instantly, a relatively restful night. I woke when I felt him pressed up against me. _Hello, morning wood._ I raised my top leg and reached down with one of my hands to guide him to my opening. A still groggy Gale savored the pre-breakfast quickie; as he woke up, his strokes sped up until we climaxed together.

 

After we got out of bed, I felt the ‘Everdeen to be named later’ and was scared. This fear was more ancient than archery; it was life itself.

 

Peeta had come over to bring us fresh bread. Once he left to visit Haymitch, I spoke to Mother. “I understand. This morning and October 8th, not to mention several other days inbetween, I woke up next to the man of my dreams. I can’t imagine what it would be like to not find someone there anymore.”

“I didn’t think you were in _Prim’s_ room,” she said while smiling.

Soon enough, it was December 25th, the fifth anniversary of that horrible day. Mother became even more withdrawn that day, as expected from the past three years. However, she wasn’t as bad as she could have been – or had been. Right down the hallway was the shoulder to cry on of Hazelle Hawthorne, one of the few other people who could possibly understand. Posy knew her birthday was almost here. Yet a new year was coming, and I feared it would be even worse than the last.


	5. Victory Tour

**Summary for the Chapter:**

>  It’s finally time for the Victory Tour Katniss was dreading, and once again she aims to turn the Capitol’s rituals against it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Previously in An Unexpected Occurrence: Gale professes his love for Katniss while angry over her act with Peeta. Katniss, thinking the act with Peeta might be real, realizes her heart lies with Gale. She gets pregnant from their afternoon of passion. Mrs. Everdeen, Prim, Gale and Peeta all take the news very well, and the guys pass along their families’ reactions. Katniss and the others start to discuss plans for the Victory Tour. Katniss and Gale have a secret wedding in the woods, and the Hawthornes move into the Everdeen house in Victors Village.
> 
> A/N  
> I fixed grammatically incorrect commas after quotes ending in exclamation or question marks. That and a few typo corrections were my only edits since posting Chapter 4.

Before The Tour

 

            A bell in the Justice Building rang in the new year, but that meant the Victory Tour was only a month away. It was definitely time to make further plans, although I had put it off because I was dreading it. The Victors Village houses had phones, but I rarely ever used mine. I made a rare call, to Cinna about Tour outfits. “There will be a rather important design consideration,” I said, stifling laughter. _If I didn’t find humor in my situation, I’d go even more insane than I already am._

            “What is it, Mockingjay?” he answered.

            “Baby bump! I’ll be five months along!” I answered cheerfully.

            “That’s great, and yes, I definitely needed to know that. Maybe we can talk more about it when I and the prep team see you for the tour,” he said before hanging up. _Dodged a bullet there, and yes, what I had to say about it isn’t something to be discussed over the phone._

.

When talking with Peeta, he suggested, “Why don’t we do a fake public marriage proposal?” _Ouch, this is gonna hurt him. A lot._

            “How about we say that we already did a toasting?” I countered.

            “Well, if we’re supposedly already married, the Capitol can’t make a big deal out of the wedding,” Peeta said. “That isn’t my style either,” he continued. _So it would be ridiculous extravagance to the Town boy as well._

            He had realized part of my thought process, so I replied “You’re right, that’s definitely not for me either.” However, I had to mention my other intention. “It’s what Gale and I already did.” I remember slamming Peeta into the wall after the shock of his crush reveal. He might have been tempted to return the favor if I wasn’t pregnant. For once I saw anger in the gentle boy’s eyes.

            He was still apologetic. “I should have known. I’ve had several months to come to terms with it, and I still haven’t.”

            My response was mostly practical. “I don’t want to hurt you, but that’s the truth, and thinking of Gale might be what it takes to make our act convincing enough.”

            “I will still always love you, but evidently so will he,” he resigned himself to say.

            “Eleven will be very eventful because of Rue, but this would spice up another part of the Tour. I bet Effie would love to tsk-tsk unwed parents, and love even more to hear that’s not an issue.” I described that day in the woods to Peeta, so we would be on the same page with details, essential to maintaining the illusion.

.

            Effie, Cinna, Portia and both prep teams all showed up right before the Victory Tour to go with us. Octavia, Venia and Flavius were relatively merciful, maybe because of the pregnancy, maybe because my overall appearance hadn’t ‘deteriorated’ much since they last poked and prodded me six months ago. As expected, Cinna did a masterful job altering his beautiful designs to account for my swelling belly. It was a _daughter_ -to-be, apparently. It was one of the few times I had gone to a regular doctor. Mother said I may have wanted to know anyway, even without the Victory Tour, since I could afford to find out. That was one detail she couldn’t help me with herself – in fact, she often dispelled the District 12 locals’ myths about ineffective methods for answering the ‘daughter or son’ question. “Time for an adventure, Rue,” I said while patting my belly.

 

District Eleven

 

            The Victory Tour started with the highest numbered districts and counted down. However, the winner’s district was skipped and saved for last. So District Twelve victors would start in District Eleven. There would be many hard parts of this, but at least we would get one of them out of the way first.

 

            We got dressed on the train. Cinna had drawn inspiration from Rue’s light blue dress when creating my gown. My wheat crown was gold instead of the silver one she’d worn for the tribute parade. It emphasized my connection to the little girl, and also might help me look innocent, like the outfit I wore for my post-Games interview. I of course intended to be anything but a harmless little girl. Peeta had a similar crown, and a suit in a slightly darker shade of blue.

 

We came to a stop at what must be the border of District Eleven. Not only was their fence several times higher than ours, it was topped with razor wire and guard towers. I assume its electricity was always on. Looking out the train windows, I saw massive fields rolling by, still full of field hands – even on this day of ‘celebration’, the Capitol still worked them especially hard. When we got off the train, I promptly noticed it was a bit warmer here. I knew Eleven was near Twelve; evidently it was to the south. The Peacekeepers hustled us around awfully roughly for distinguished guests, but soon enough we were in their main square. I recognized from Games broadcasts that their reapings were held in the same place. _One of the Capitol’s many cruel jokes._

 

            Past victors often appeared on the tour to welcome the new one to the club. Chaff was a District Eleven victor slightly older than Haymitch. He lost a hand in his arena. Unlike Peeta and his leg, he did not get a prosthetic replacement. Like Haymitch, he tried to drown the memories. The two of them passed a bottle back and forth as we’d seen them do on TV many times before. Their drunken antics usually amused the audience, but Chaff’s remaining hand clutching a liquor bottle illustrated the damage of the Games. Seeder, a dignified old lady, smoothed out her dress. She had olive-colored skin much like us Seam folk did, but most of the district was a medium shade like Rue, or dark like Chaff and Thresh.

 

            Rue deserved more than the canned Capitol spiel. “The little girl from your district reminded me of the sister I had volunteered to save,” I started. “She was a wonderful friend in our short time together. She would have been happy for me getting to stand here. I think the same goes for Thresh – he seemed to want me to win for Rue’s sake. And then I got to win with Peeta too,” I finished.

 

            Prim herself stood silently in the background, but made her point nevertheless. I didn’t want to overuse my sister and mothers’ presence too early.

 

            My impending motherhood was obvious, so Peeta felt free to start speaking about the baby. “I always wanted children some day. I didn’t expect them so soon, but that’s what can happen when you can’t keep your eyes – or other body parts – off of each other.” The audience laughed at Peeta’s ribaldry. I faked a devilish smile. “I know how much Rue meant to Katniss - because of how much Primrose means to her. So I’d like to donate ten percent of my tribute winnings to Rue’s family.” I hadn’t seen that coming! Haymitch said I could do worse, and he had a point, but I certainly was more impressed with Peeta at this moment. This smile was sweet and real. My kiss capped the cheers. The Claytons would not starve as long as he lived.

 

            Now that I was back at the microphone, I started using it. “He’s so right, and isn’t that wonderful?” I then gave new meaning to the term ‘pregnant pause’. “It’s a girl, and I’m going to name her after Rue.” The cheers got even louder, but I noticed one old woman that wasn’t joining in. I noticed some resemblance and guessed she was Thresh’s grandmother. “I can make the same donation to the Mackeys.”

 

            I just hoped they’d actually get the money, probably more than most anyone in District 11 had ever seen. We certainly had put on a good show.

 

District Eight

 

            Ten and Nine had been relatively quiet parts of the Tour. I had fleeting contact with the boy from Nine at the Cornucopia, but since I was here and he was not, we didn’t dwell on it. There we did lean more on the standard Capitol speech, since we didn’t have as much to say and didn’t want to make our rebelliousness too obvious. We suspected that not much would happen in Eight either, so I gave Effie her cue as the train came to a full and complete stop. Once in public, she fluffed her wig and said, “Whenever are you two getting married?”

            “We already are!” Peeta chimed in eagerly.

            “I don’t have that in my records,” she said haughtily.

            I tag-teamed with Peeta, saying “In District Twelve we have a marriage ritual called the toasting, where the newlyweds share bread and a fire. We already did that, so we may as well be married, and that’s what counts to us.”

            Much of the crowd started cheering, and some started chanting my ‘Girl On Fire’ nickname, but one shout of “Congratulations!” was particularly clear. Cecelia, one of their district’s few victors, looked favorably upon the shouter. The lady of the 60th Games was offered a microphone. “That’s my husband – welcome to the _especially_ rare group of _married_ victors. Alexander and I went to the Justice Building right after I got home on August 17 th; so when was it for you?”

            “October 7th,” I answered. “I walked with his father, who’s as kind and gentlemanly as he is.” _That hadn’t happened, but Mr. Mellark did deserve the compliment._ “Ma and Prim were with us.” _I always had Prim close to me, especially now, and I was growing closer to Mother._

            The elder Everdeen took a turn speaking. “Oh, my little girls were so happy…well, we all have to realize when our little ones aren’t so little anymore.” _Like when they’re sent to fight to the death, cloaked as the jitters expected of a bride’s mother. Coded rebelliousness. I’m proud of you._

            “Yes, Katniss isn’t looking so little,” Cecelia replied. “We didn’t waste much time having a little girl either. Say hi, Cecelia 2.” Effie had explained that Cecelia’s three girls were especially popular in their district, and the one named after her mother looked especially like her. _Many firstborn sons were the second of their father’s name, so why not a firstborn daughter who was second of her mother’s name?_

 

The Middle Districts

 

            On the way into District Seven, I wondered what it would be like to trek through their woods, with trees even taller than the ones Gale and I knew back home. There were even some inside the fences; I’m not sure if that would make things better or worse for avoiding trouble with Peacekeepers. So far, none of them seemed as lax as our friends back at the Hob nor as harsh as the crew in Eleven.

 

Fortunately or unfortunately, we had little connection to the children the Capitol had stolen from the lumber and paper district, Johanna, their victor from two years ago, seemed to have quite a connection with the fallen female’s brother. Haymitch drank partially to cope with the loss of his mentorees; perhaps Johanna and that young man had found a different outlet for grief. Peeta spoke plainly, announcing “if I didn’t have Katniss, I sure wouldn’t have complained about Miss Mason”. Later he whispered to me “I have a feeling she understands our coded comments”.

 

In District Six, two of the surviving victors were old men, and the other an even older woman. They had long since lost the vibrant youth that still shone in me, Peeta, Johanna, Winnow of Nine, and some lower district Victors we had yet to meet. The two oldest looked even more ravaged than would be expected given their advanced age.

 I figured the transportation district would be relieved that I finished off the brute who took their favorite son. Ashton had been their best chance in decades, much like how we had been District Twelve’s best hope since Haymitch. It’s not like all three of us could win, and get what the inner districts get most years. Some seemed angry that I had been too kind to Cato. I wish I could tell them that they were missing the point. “Well, he died anyway,” I said.

I thanked District Five for the intelligence of their girl Foxface. I learned her name had been Marissa McLeod. She seemed to have no family – most of the fallen tributes had someone weeping, and the lack of that seemed even more disturbing. I whispered this to Haymitch on the train away from Five. “That’s what I was talking with Stephanie about,” he said of Five’s pretty recent victor.

“I thought you were just giving her the eye,” Peeta said.

“Yeah, she’s real nice to look at,” Haymitch admitted. “However, she said that the girl’s mother Electra couldn’t take losing another loved one and exposed herself to deadly current.”

“The Games are so much more than just 23 dead,” I replied.

“Or 22,” Peeta corrected.

“Or 47,” Haymitch further clarified. Every 25 years, the Capitol added an especially vile twist to the Games, and his year, they reaped twice as many. It was time for another ‘Quarter Quell’ this year, and I wondered what the sick bastards had come up with.

“I’m afraid I would know all too well,” I continued. “One I learned that my father’s mother died soon after that mine explosion, I wondered.”

“Aye, Jacob was hardly the first Everdeen to meet a nasty, brutish and short end in the mines or because of them,” Haymitch acknowledged. _Even if a miner avoided explosions, he or she could still be ravaged by a cough full of coal dust._ “Like Electra, Sarah faced too much.”

 

In many districts, losing another two tributes was pushing people over the edge. Beneath the jealous comments directed at my sister and mother, there was a simmering rage against the Capitol.

 

The stops in Four and Three weren’t so painful. I wasn’t held responsible for their tributes’ deaths, the result of inner-district infighting. Those districts were nearly as used to victory as Two and One and had many of the Capitol’s other favors. There, a losing year wouldn’t aggravate them so much.

 

District Two

 

When we arrived in District Two, we saw one group that must be Clove’s mother, father and sister. I saw a woman standing alone that was probably Cato’s mother. My mother also noticed this and walked up to her. “Mrs. Adams?” Mrs. Everdeen asked.

            “It’s Ms. Anthony - he died before we could marry,” the attractively muscled woman answered. _Sadly, that would explain why she was standing alone._

            “We were approaching our fifteenth anniversary, but I still know what it’s like to lose the father of my children. Five years and I still miss Jacob’s love tremendously,” Mother choked out.

            “Nineteen years and I still haven’t forgotten Julius one bit,” Cato’s mother said of the father. At this point they hugged each other. _Hazelle Hawthorne would be one of many crying at this moment. Gale Hawthorne would be one of many seeing rebellious implications._ Not mentioning myself or Cato would keep things subtle enough to not arouse Capitol suspicion. I doubt the Capitol worried too much about the loyalty of their pet district.

 

            Ms. Anthony then spoke to me while glaring at the collection of her district’s Victors. “At least you made it quick for my boy. That’s all you can ask in the arena.” _Brutal, but that’s District Two for you. I suppose Cato would have returned the ‘favor’, but I knew firsthand about Clove’s sadism._

 

District One

 

            From the looks of it, Marvel was an only child, but Glimmer’s family included a little sister. That girl stood up to speak. “Lustre Shinesmith. I want to be a jewelry artist.” I saw a suppressed look on Prim’s face, which I interpreted as _Trinkets for the rich? How about saving peoples’ lives?_ “I wanted my first piece to be my big sister’s wedding ring.” The little rich girl quite understandably choked up. “But since that is not to be, I decided to use the design for you.” _It was very clear that she correctly blamed the Capitol and not me for her sister’s death._ She stepped forward with a small black box. Prim and Peeta joined me in walking to meet Lustre, who flipped the box open. It was lined with similarly dark velvet, and the actual ring was an emerald set in gold. It must be simple for One or the Capitol, though it might as well be a boulder back home. _Would Glimmer have humored her sister’s simplicity, or was Lustre scaling it down for me, showing sympathy for the outer districts in her own way?_ Prim picked the ring up and slid it on to my finger. I noticed that Lustre’s main contribution was the style of the lettering, which read ‘Katniss Everdeen 74.10.07’. Peeta was handed a totally plain band. _I noticed Peeta’s name was not mentioned – had she somehow figured out the act? That was unclear, and I decided not to share the possible interpretation._ Peeta and I raised our hands together, showing off the rings. Several married couples in the audience followed the gesture, including Glimmer’s and Marvel’s parents.

            “Thank you,” Peeta said. He understood the gesture quite clearly, but he presented himself simply as a groom glad to be spared the expense.

            “I’m sure it won’t be long before you have one of your own,” I added in reply to Lustre. “You look just like your sister, and she was the most beautiful young woman I’d ever seen.” _Her beauty was extinguished by the Capitol through my hand. You’re one of many that I intend to save from the same fate._

            Peeta chimed in. “No, Katniss sees the country’s best-looking lady whenever she looks in a mirror.” _It seemed like just a lover’s compliment, but it also insulted Capitol artifice. Well-played._

            “Aww,” Lustre replied. The appropriate response from me was to give Peeta a real-looking kiss, and I did just that.

 

            “You put on a good show,” Snow said simply.


	6. Drawn And Quartered

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Victory Tour is capped with a show in the Capitol and a triumphant return home. The Capitol uses an especially cruel twist for the Games every twenty-five years, and the seventy-fifth Games is no exception.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Previously in An Unexpected Occurrence: Gale professes his love for Katniss while angry over her act with Peeta. Katniss, thinking the act with Peeta might be real, realizes her heart lies with Gale. She gets pregnant from their afternoon of passion. Mrs. Everdeen, Prim, Gale and Peeta all take the news very well, and the guys pass along their families’ reactions. Katniss and Gale have a secret wedding in the woods, and the Hawthornes move into the Everdeen house in Victors Village. Mrs. Everdeen and Prim join Katniss and Peeta on an emotional rollercoaster of a Victory Tour.

It seems either Snow had bought our act on the Victory Tour, or had thought was good enough for the rest of Panem to believe it. Overall, we told a universal human story, not something confined to one district or one city, which is why it resonated so much.

 

            The Capitol festivities included a feast, which reminded me of the dreadful lead-up to the Games and the luxury enjoyed by Capitol citizens while we suffered in the Districts. Capitol elites swarmed the party, two of which were Snow’s daughter Livia and granddaughter Alexandra.

 

            “You’re gonna be a mom? That’s great!” Alexandra shouted at me. _It sure would be if my daughter didn’t have to face the Reaping._ “I want a bunch of babies myself some day,” she continued. _I hope she isn’t pregnant right now. She’s even younger than me, and whatever her age, she’s rather drunk at the moment._ “I hope their dad is as sweet as him,” she said while swinging her arm to point towards Peeta.

            “He’s such a great guy. I’m sure he’ll be a wonderful father,” I admitted. _To what woman’s children, we don’t know._ Peeta came over and daintily kissed the hand that Alexandra sloppily extended.

 

            I overheard Livia talking to my mother. “That thing in Two was amazing. Even in the Capitol, sometimes the father of one’s children dies young.” _The odds would not be in his favor having President Snow for a father-in-law, I bet that’s it_.

 

            I saw Portia pass Peeta a bottle of clear liquid. Peeta moved to drink it, and Portia panicked. “No, not here!” she shouted. “The bathroom!” Peeta looked puzzled, so Portia explained “Don’t you want to clear your stomach so you can enjoy more of this feast?” Once my co-victor followed his stylist, I heard him make retching sounds, but not induced by the liquid.

            Peeta soon whispered to me about it. “Disgusting. No wonder Seam folks are born to hate the Capitol. I thought I had it good eating bread that was too stale to sell.”

 

            There would be another interview with Caesar, and I’d let Peeta do most of the talking. We’d have to delve into deeply personal parts of our life to appease the voyeuristic audience, but that was necessary for those lives to continue.

 

            “The odds really were in my favor. I’m married to the love of my life and she’s having my child,” Peeta said, in a tone of voice that seemed over the top on purpose. “She’ll be a wonderful mother if being such a wonderful sister is any indication,” he continued.

            “I never thought I’d be in this situation,” I said with multiple meanings in mind, but I addressed only the most obvious one. “Once it happened, I realized I was better suited to motherhood than I once thought,” I explained.  
            “I always dreamed you’d be a wonderful wife,” Peeta answered.

            “Different starting points, but you ended up in the same place, you’re both very happy with each other,” Caesar observed.

            “Yes,” Peeta and I said in unison to agree with Mr. Flickerman. Thus began the next round of cheers.

            “He’s been very supportive…,” I said while patting my belly and looking at Peeta. “…but you know what got me really excited? Hearing ‘Auntie Prim’,” I announced.

            “I’ve been hearing a lot of ‘Grandpa Phillip’,” Peeta agreed. “Dad’s especially excited that it’s going to be a girl,” he added. “He loves me and my brothers, but he always wanted a daughter, and now he’ll have a granddaughter.”

            “Rue was an obvious choice. It would be confusing to have two Primroses around,” I joked. “If it was a boy, the naming decision would have been just as obvious – Jacob Everdeen the second. I am my father’s daughter, after all,” I explained.

            “Maybe there are sons in our future,” Peeta said hopefully. “The world could use another Phillip Mellark too.”

 

            Our triumphant return home reminded me of when we first returned to our district after becoming victors. Crowds mobbed the train station. However, the new Peacekeepers held them back much more brusquely, a small thing, but a reminder of the sorry state District Twelve now found itself in. I heard Gale’s voice in my head and reminded myself that it was the Capitol’s fault, not mine. I was one of many district folk fed up with their oppressive rule; I just happened to be the one to draw attention for it.

 

I soon heard Gale’s voice for real. He was the first to greet me, shouting “You did great, Catnip!” I saw in his eyes that he wanted us to be alone, or at least alone enough that we could be ourselves. Prim smiled at her ‘cousin’ Rory and seemed to have similar thoughts.

 

            Soon after that end of the tour, it was time for the Quarter Quell announcement. The Capitol uses an especially cruel twist for the Games every twenty-five years, and I feared the third installment of that procedure would be no exception.

 

Snow was handed a small box. The president opened it, and I saw four rows of ten envelopes each. He reached for the third envelope in the first row and cracked it open to read the dark words on the card inside. “To remind the districts that not even the strongest among them can overcome the power of the Capitol, the tributes shall be reaped from the pool of existing victors.”

 

I was in shock from being sentenced to death again, especially considering how much the Capitol ‘knew’ about the ‘star-crossed lovers’ and ‘our’ child. Maybe the act hadn’t been as convincing as I thought Snow thought. I would be a mother for only a couple months before Rue was half-orphaned by my next arena. I don’t see how I could win a second Games. I would face the elite of the Career elite, and there would be more than a few dangerous non-Careers this year. The arena was itself competition – Gamemakers could always find ways to deal with troublesome tributes, and few had been more troublesome than me lately.

 

            Gale would of course fly into a rage. “They already wrest 24 children from their mothers. What’s taking a mother from her child on top of that?” The kid had made Gale even more of a rebel, if that was possible.

 

Peeta was in shock too. I needed to talk it over with him, but he was nowhere to be found. The next morning, I opened Haymitch’s unlocked door to find him and Peeta in the dining room in a drunken stupor. I thought Abernathy’s booze was all gone, but he must have had a few bottles tucked away somewhere which he broke out for this special occasion. Peeta blinked his eyes and groaned. “Haymitch, I don’t understand how you used to do this every day,” Peeta said while writhing in pain.

“I fell off the wagon badly,” Haymitch admitted.

“Gentlemen, we’ve got work to do,” I said to scold them.

 

            Haymitch was very forthright when he said “I hate my life. You haven’t even really lived yours yet. No need to volunteer for me, and I’d volunteer for you”.

            I assessed the situation. “That’s touching, but someone’s got to learn how to mentor their mentor. And you gotta sober up. Completely.”

            It was Haymitch’s turn to be in shock; he was shaking at the mere thought. “Whatever it takes to save one of her parents, wink wink nudge nudge.”

 

            Even in normal years, Careers came prepared, so in this specially twisted year, we could do the same. My weapons were locked away in the now-forbidden woods, so much of our fighting practice was with kitchen knives, and staves simulating spears, clubs, maces and the like. We still had our legs, so we all did a lot of running. Haymitch was doing much better after his recent alcohol relapse; Peeta was even making him into a decent wrestler. “This damn bitter wind though,” Haymitch muttered.

            “Spring is coming,” I said to reassure him. I didn’t want to think about next summer.


	7. Into The World

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Katniss turns 17 a few weeks before her child is born, all with the imminent threat of death in the Games hanging over her head.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Previously in An Unexpected Occurrence: Gale, angry over Katniss’ act with Peeta, professes his love for her. Katniss thought that act might be real, but realizes her heart lies with Gale. She gets pregnant from their afternoon of passion. Everyone involved takes the news very well, and the guys pass along their families’ reactions. Katniss and Gale have a secret wedding in the woods. The Hawthornes move into the Everdeen house in Victors Village. Mrs. Everdeen and Prim join Katniss and Peeta on an emotional rollercoaster of a Victory Tour, but what’s worse, Victors will be sent back into the arena.
> 
> A/N
> 
> I was already planning to update this story next, but since May 8th is Katniss’ birthday, I prioritized it and had the chapter include Katniss’ birthday.

            My mind was filling with dread as my belly was filling with Rue Clayton Everdeen. Normally women were congratulated on so pronounced a baby bump, but with an upcoming fate like mine, people felt congratulations weren’t in order. Five years ago, Hazelle Hawthorne hadn’t had much to celebrate either, going into labor with her husband’s death still fresh in everyone’s minds.

 

However, in her case and mine, people at least were keeping their distance out of sympathy. Mother had been passing along her experience from being pregnant with me and later Prim – the good, bad and the ugly. Many people had avoided the Everdeens out of anger. In their eyes, it was a horrible thing for people from different parts of the district to love one another and it was even worse for them to create a new life together. Even my father caught some hard stares from his fellow Seam folks; they felt he had abandoned his own people by loving another. Yet in my parents’ eyes, it was nothing but beautiful and that’s what had kept them moving forward.

 

Thinking about their love built my love for Gale. I always cherished the moments spent with him, even in this unnatural indoor location instead of the natural outdoors that was a true paradise for us. His birthday was March 3rd. The family, multiple last names but one tight-knit group, gathered for fresh bread and goat cheese. This was a fairly common breakfast for us. The Parcel Day food was plentiful by District Twelve standards, but still not enough, still not a complete diet, particularly simplistic for those of us used to the woodland catch.

 

We had slept in our own rooms, so breakfast was the first time I saw him that morning. Looking at Gale on his special day, I wanted his body again. After we finished eating, it was all we could do to keep from falling down as we headed towards his room. He hugged me from behind and picked me up at the waist. I was growing rather damp as I felt his arms press against me from the front and his bulge from the back. His fingers were even touching me through the loose cloth. Gale had left the bedroom door open when emerging for breakfast; once we walked through, he closed it with his foot while still holding me. Once we heard the metallic clink of the door closing, he said “My penis is certainly having a happy birthday.”

“Oh my yes,” I said. “I felt it, now I want to see it.” I turned around and knelt in front of him, tugging at his waistband as I went to the ground. Once his organ sprung free, I put my mouth over the tip and began a simple sucking motion.

Even that drove Gale wild. “Oh my Catnip, I’m so glad you discovered you liked sex after all.” With the woods closed off and not much to do in Victors Village, I had sometimes consigned myself to listening to the girl talk at school. Ironically, I was one of the few Seam girls that hadn’t dreamed of having Gale’s babies, and now I was the one actually doing so. That had proven useful. Those girls said the seed tasted bad, but what could possibly offend my tastebuds after the garbage we’d eaten during the worst of times? So when I felt he was about to explode, I didn’t take my mouth off him.

“I like everything with you, Gale,” I smiled.

 

I also wanted to cherish what little time I had left with Madge. I had a better friend than I knew, someone I had halfway ignored in my struggle to survive. I was hopeless at playing the piano, but I learned much more than that. “Apparently you were just a late bloomer, but I’ve never been attracted to boys at all,” she said. “Even Gale didn’t tempt me. I figured you were like that too.”

“Like what?” I asked back. I honestly had no clue what she meant by ‘that’.

“Attracted to girls instead,” she smiled.

“I didn’t even know that was possible. Well, you’re still the same girl that’s always sat with me at school, the same one that brought me the now-famous pin.”

“Thank you, Katniss. Well, the Peeta act surprised me as much as anyone else, and disappointed me as much as it did Gale.”

Even I could figure out what she meant. “Ah, so the girl who never wanted love had two boys and one girl fall for her,” I said.

“Apparently you wanted it eventually,” she joked while pointing to my belly.

 

The evening of May 7th, I was lying in my bed staring up at the ceiling when I heard a faint clock chime marking midnight, making it May 8th, my birthday. Almost as if on cue, Gale walked into the room and joined me under the covers. “Happy birthday, Catnip,” he said in a sweet voice reserved for me and the few other people he loved.

However, lately I was in a sour mood even in his presence. “Some birthday, probably the last I’ll ever have.”

“Well, don’t let the Capitol crush your spirit, your beautiful spirit. Let’s make it special. I have many more birthdays coming, or at least I would like to think, and we sure celebrated that one.” Just the way he talked about it brought that feeling back to me. He lifted the covers and peeled away my top, gazing longingly at my chest. “Your breasts look even prettier when they swell, someone’s gonna eat well for the next few months.” Apparently that someone was him right now. Not only were they bigger, they were also more sensitive, so I reacted instantly when he put his mouth to one of them. “I was experiencing hunger of a different kind. Since that felt good, imagine how good it will feel to have our daughter there, only a few weeks now.”

“Can’t be soon enough! Oof, she’s kicking, feel that!” He gladly put his hands all over my belly to feel the vibrations himself. Once Rue went to sleep for the night, so did we. There was something about his tender but possessive touch that always comforted me when I needed and deserved it most; he senses those times and now was certainly one of them.

 

            It wasn’t quite four weeks later, on June 3rd before breakfast, when the new Rue decided to join us. I felt and heard a splash on the floor. Prim and Mother both turned to the sound. “Yeah, Little Duck, my water just broke!” I shouted back at them. The two of them had prepared a simple but clean bed in one of the spare rooms. Gale was next to pick up on the commotion, and he carried me there.

Mother stressed the importance of cleanliness for anyone involved. At one point she shouted “Far too many women have gotten sick from dirty birthing rooms, and she will not be one of them!” She turned directly to me and said “I’m sorry dear, but since your woods have been cut off, I’ve run very low on painkiller herbs.”

“I’m the sorry one!” I shouted back. “Oww!” I moaned.

“Push, dear, push,” she said as she squeezed my left hand and Little Duck held the right.

 

            Peeta had just left the house after dropping off some fresh bread for the morning. Hazelle managed to catch him before he disappeared into his own house. They must’ve gone right on to Haymitch’s house, because we soon saw Abernathy, much easier to rouse now that he had gone sober.

 

I sent Haymitch to run for Madge – she was one of my few friends, after all. Also, she was going to bring a blank birth certificate and take a few pictures afterwards – those stills were the only concession I’d make to Capitol voyeurism. For once, the Capitol wasn’t that invasive, perhaps because they didn’t want to highlight that the new mother would be sent back into the arena. As I watched Haymitch take off, I saw the positive results of all that running practice.

 

I heard Madge and Haymitch’s returning footsteps approaching, and I heard Vick shout “Cousin Katniss about to pop!” _I silently thanked him for remembering to say ‘cousin’ – some people who had followed Madge and Haymitch to Victors Village weren’t in on the secret._

 

Prim and Mother were the only people in the room with me until Madge came running. She was carrying a wooden rack with a needle and six glass vials. Morphling was always precious, but right now the golden liquid was worth its weight in gold. “Thank you, Madge!” _agh!_ “Right now, please!” Mother broke the seal on one of the bottles and picked up the needle, drawing the vial’s contents into the chamber of the syringe. She found a vein in my arm and pushed down the plunger. The momentary stab turned my unpleasant mental and physical fog into a tolerable one.

 

Little Duck called out “We have a head!” I was seated somewhat upright in the bed, so I could see Rue just starting to come out of me with a thin coat of dark hair on her head. It seemed hours later and may well have been by the time she fully emerged from me. Mother used a pair of scissors sterilized in boiling water to snip the umbilical cord. It was a relief to hear her crying instead of me. It was magical when she was in my arms doing it.

 

“We can call the other folks in once we’ve cleaned up a bit of this mess,” Mother decreed. Mom and Little Duck took turns holding Rue while the other worked, grandmother and aunt now, not just birth attendants. “Come on in!” she called to the friends and relatives waiting outside the room. This included Madge with her camera.

 

Peeta was the first to hold her after the three of us. “You’re so pretty! Well, you look just like your mommy, so of course you are!” Peeta was convincing cooing over the baby not truly his own. None of his family were here, whether by choice or not, so he handed her to the real father next. Sadly, Gale had to be equally believable in the other direction.

As Gale held our daughter close, Posy looked up at them. Gale was the closest she had to a father figure, and now that young man was a father for real. “Wow, is not doll, is real baby!” she exclaimed. Hazelle brought in a little chair and Posy sat in it before Gale knelt down to lay the baby in Posy’s arms. “I love you, other flower girl!” she said, again speaking enthusiastically.

“Aren’t they all just so precious?” Hazelle observed.

 

The birth certificate pointedly named Peeta as the father. As we signed it along with Mother as the midwife, I thought _What’s a little perjury compared to all our other lawbreaking?_

 

As the crowd thinned, Gale had a chance to say what he desperately wanted to. “My daughter.” Only in whispers, unfortunately.

“We all have to grow up too fast out here,” Mom told Gale, “and we’ve long since known how well you rose to that challenge, but still – good man. A lot of nineteen year olds would be glad someone else had to claim it as theirs and leave it at that.” Then she said something embarrassing but necessary. “You two are going to need to give that part of her body a rest for a few weeks.”

 

I needed all sorts of rest right now. There was a cradle next to my bed for baby Rue, and we both went to sleep. Mother had warned me to savor the time the baby spent sleeping.

 

As I changed her cloths one day, I muttered “How does someone so little crap so much?”

Prim was nearby, and cheerfully answered “Because of how much she eats. She likes your breasts even more than Gale does.”

 

The Capitol gossip machine had a _Where Are They Now?_ series about the current lives of past victors. The franchise included a monthly magazine. The newborn child of one and supposedly two victors would certainly be a big story in the July issue. I picked up a copy along with my victor winnings at the Justice Building on July 1 st. Fortunately, the cover photo pictured neither Peeta nor Gale. The headline was ‘Three Generations’. The photo showed me cradling Rue in my right arm while Mom was standing behind me and to the left.

“You know what this means, sweetheart?” Haymitch asked sarcastically. “Sponsors. Especially since they didn’t give the cover story to any of your competitors.”


	8. Leaving This World

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Previously in An Unexpected Occurrence: Gale, angry over the Katniss-Peeta act, professes his love for. Katniss thought that act might be real, but realizes her heart lies with Gale. She gets pregnant from their afternoon of passion. Everyone involved takes the news very well, and the guys pass along their families’ reactions. Katniss and Gale have a secret wedding in the woods. The Hawthornes move into the Everdeen house in Victors Village. Mrs. Everdeen and Prim join Katniss and Peeta on an emotional rollercoaster of a Victory Tour, but what’s worse, Victors will be sent back into the arena. Katniss has another birthday and births her first child, both of which seem like the last for her.

I didn’t worry that I had fewer and fewer days left until the Games – I tried enjoying more days left with my daughter, Prim, Gale, my mother, Madge – the few people I cared about, I cared about deeply, and nothing would change that.

I’d have several more days with Peeta and Haymitch as they joined me in being shipped off to the Capitol. Mellark wouldn’t join me as a tribute again, the capstone on our sham relationship for ‘our’ daughter’s sake. If I didn’t make it back, Rue 2 would live in Peeta’s house. Even if the Capitol figured out she wasn’t Peeta’s daughter, they would have to pretend otherwise in public along with the rest of us. They hated being made to look like fools, as Haymitch learned in the hardest way possible. So we couldn’t rub it in their faces. However, they couldn’t admit they’d been fooled either.

How many more times could the Capitol make its oppression of us look like an accident? It happened to Haymitch’s brother, mother and girlfriend. It’s probably the explanation for the mine explosion of December 25th 69. My father and Gale’s had seen the truth. I know nothing about the politics of the other four men who didn’t make it back up the elevator that fateful day – more innocent victims?

Haymitch was staying sober, but he found it funny to drink water out of his old white liquor bottles. “Dammit, Abernathy,” I muttered yet again.  
“Stay offa my case, sweetheart,” he countered. His breath was devoid of fumes, so it really did seem to be a played-out prank instead of a relapse. “They might underestimate me if they think I’m still Hestrashed Imbibernathy.” I laughed at the nickname. “Many of my fellow victors are too far gone, be it alcohol or something else, so I’ll be lumped in with them instead of those like you that can still fight.”  
“You think better when you’re sober or remotely resembling it,” I complimented.  
“Last year, I did stay sober enough to help you, didn’t I?” he said.  
“You did,” I agreed.  
“Thanks for helping keep me clean, sweetheart. I was drinking away the rest of my life. I wonder what my liver would say – ‘drink, is that all you can do?’” he said to offer bittersweet praise now that he probably didn’t have much time left either.

I saw Madge again a few days later. Madge had a lot of time left, and apparently she found someone wonderful to do with it. “Katniss, there’s someone I want you to meet.”  
“Apparently Peeta isn’t the only Townie to be infatuated with a Seam girl,” I observed. Even I could figure it out.  
The other girl laughed. “Except my last name is plant based instead of my first. ‘Anna Flowers’,” she said, introducing herself.  
“You’d know her better than you think, Katniss,” Madge suggested.  
I couldn’t figure it out, so Anna explained. “My father died in the same mine accident.”  
“I suppose you were one of the other girls at the so-called Justice Building in the aftermath,” I admitted, another typical Seam face lost in the haze of pain. “But it was no accident.” She stood there in shock, so I began to explain myself. “I suppose, like most other people in this district, you know my cousin Gale. His father died in the same explosion. Our fathers were both troublemakers. Gale thinks it can’t be a coincidence, that the Capitol had them killed and didn’t care who died along with them.”  
“As if I didn’t have enough reasons to hate the Capitol!” she said with righteous indignation. “Well…on a brighter note, my strawberry princess said being one of the few girls not interested in Gale was a big hint as to who she was.”  
I giggled. “So that’s what you call her, and she told me that story too,” I said to Anna about Madge.  
“I know the woods were a lot more important than just my strawberries, but I do miss them,” Madge chimed in.

“I wanna see the baby!” Anna announced. Madge had seen Rue the day she was born, even held her after taking pictures. Miss Undersee must’ve regaled her girlfriend with tales of how cute my daughter is. I lifted a swaddled Rue out of the cradle. “Madge was right, she’s adorable, ooh look at that, she’s smiling,” Anna gushed. I let her hold one of Rue’s baby hands, one finger wrapped around a whole wrist.  
“She likes you, you do seem to have a way with kids,” I observed.  
“She reminds me of my niece Lily. My sister Ellen had to go to guys in town, it’s probably Cray’s.” He obviously wouldn’t have been any help even while alive, so very unlike the real father and supposed father of mine. “Our mother starved spring of 71, so I was the only one Ellen had left.” All three of us were about to cry. Rue seemed to pick up on that, and when baby’s hungry, baby eats. That reminded Anna of something else. “Ellen’s still nursing Lily, so maybe she could help with Rue while you’re gone, hopefully not for long of course.”  
“I would like to meet what’s left of your family,” I agreed. “And may the odds be ever in my favor.”  
“We can be who we are, and that’s great, a happiness that even the Capitol didn’t want to take away any longer, but since they insist on keeping us powerless, it’s bittersweet,” Anna finished. Gale would be proud of that attitude – I know I was.

“Well, I met Madge’s awesome new girlfriend today,” I told Prim and Mother over the next meal. “Anna knows as well as anyone else how harsh life in The Seam is.” I felt no need to elaborate, since I was talking to two other people who also knew that all too well. “Yet she’s still a sweetie – that part kinda reminds me of our own Little Duck.”   
“Quack!” Prim answered, and we all laughed.  
“Her sister has an infant too. Anna figured she could feed Rue while I’m gone.”  
Mother approved of the plan. “We were planning to improvise and do it well, goat’s milk perhaps, but there’s nothing better than the real thing,” she said.

Gale and I had become as sour as we needed to be to push back against the Capitol, but the world still needed forgiving spirits, and we did what we did partially to shield their innocence as best we could.

Madge and Anna brought Ellen and Lily with them for the next visit; my Rue was several months younger than her little one. “I heard your story – so tragic and so unnecessary. Yet it seems an innocent child is a beacon of hope for you as well,” I told Ellen. She was still unbroken – my Rue further lifted her spirits, and Ellen looked forward to helping take care of her. Also, frankly, she was one of many people who could use a share of our accumulating victor winnings.

Servants that absolutely had to live in were an exception to the rule banning non-relatives in Victors Village, or at least Mayor Miles Undersee thought so. Margaret Undersee did not complain either, since Anna Flowers chose a room in her girlfriend’s house over staying in an otherwise empty shack. The moves were made a few days before the reaping so my breasts weren’t so engorged when I was taken away from my child and so I could focus on final preparations for re-entering the arena.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was already planning to introduce Madge’s girlfriend, and had already created the character and her family, but the last line was influenced by the recent US Supreme Court decisions on the Voting Rights Act and DOMA/Prop 8.


	9. The Windup

Eventually the fateful day came. It was getting close to two. They myths were in town, the buildup of Capitol propaganda for this twisted pageant. Effie Trinket looked as gaudy as usual, but even she wasn’t so effervescent. She took a long time to pick the one name in the female bowl, mine. She was quicker in finding Haymitch’s; if she had found Peeta’s, Haymitch would have volunteered anyway.

 

Gale and I had said more than enough as I spent the last night with him. I spent most of my time in the so-called Justice Building holding my daughter for what may well be the last time. Auntie Prim scooped her up when the Peacekeepers came. All my visitors had refused to speak about me in the past tense or otherwise show a negative attitude about my fate.

 

The mood aboard the train was even more somber than I expected. Haymitch kept reminding Peeta of details about the mentor room in the Capitol.

 

So much of the procedure was familiar to us, including watching the reaping recaps. The pair from District Two eagerly stepped forward. Already I could tell that it was just another year to them. “Bloodthirsty Brutus and Enraged Enobaria,” Haymitch muttered to identify them. One of the Peacekeepers glared at the woman. The pair from One and the woman from Four marched stoically to the Reaping stage. Haymitch identified them as Emerald, Chrome and Pearl. The District Four man needed no introduction. The great Finnick Odair somberly blew a kiss to the crowd. Several women fainted, each of them thinking he meant her and her alone. Gale was extremely handsome himself, as the girls back home would jealously remind me if only they knew, but Finnick made him look like ol’ Undersee by comparison. I knew how dedicated and devoted Gale was beyond that; I wondered what Finnick was like beneath his perfectly bronzed skin.

 

Three produced a middle-aged woman and an older man, him looking distinguished in glasses but likely not so much of a threat in the arena without them. They looked like they could be related, with the same black hair and ashen skin, and they certainly acted like a close pair.

 

Districts Five, Six and Seven were eerily like Twelve – one woman guaranteed a trip back into the arena and only two men to choose from. I remembered ‘Stephanie’ and ‘Johanna’ and learned that ‘Megan’ was the name of the woman from Six. Jack, Jet and Pine were chosen from amongst the men, all getting on in years. I had seen Jack and Haymitch drink together on television, and from the looks of it, he had definitely _not_ gone sober. He reminded me of the laughingstock Haymitch had been last year, but any victor knew being wrecked by the Games was anything but funny.

 

            I wasn’t the only parent in the Games! Cecelia, the District Eight female, had three children that could barely be dragged away from her. “Not Cecelia!” our massively bewigged escort shouted. From the moment Effie showed up in District Twelve, I could tell that even she couldn’t enjoy this sick show anymore. Seeing this reaping had driven her further in that direction, yet she still kept her composure. “I really grew to like you two,” she said while pointing to me and Peeta. “I thought it just wasn’t right to make you do it again. That’s when I realized it wasn’t right to do this to anybody else either, least of all sweet Cecelia.”

            “She isn’t the only one in the Capitol who’s been thinking like that, sweetheart,” Haymitch said, his sobriety not dulling his sarcasm. Also, this was a reminder that a lot of our support would stem from continuing the ‘star-crossed lovers’ illusion.

            “Speak to her as another mother and you’ve got yourself another ally,” Effie observed.

            “You’re gettin’ the hang of this mentorin’ thing too, Trinket,” Haymitch complimented.

 

            The ancient old man Woof made District Eight the first with only one victor of each gender available. Districts Nine and Eleven were in the same situation, just barely able to provide the pound of flesh the Capitol demanded. I remembered Seeder and Chaff form the Victory Tour. _I should ask them for news of Rue and Thresh’s families_. I remembered Winnow as one of the younger ones; I couldn’t really place her partner Harvest. District Ten was sort of the other way around – one man, an old-timer named Bill, and two women. The reaper cut down the younger of the two ladies, an Annie who was still more than a decade older than the recent Annie victor from District Four.

 

            We began to study footage of those past victors’ Games, tapes edited to focus on the eventual winners.

 

Annie Hickok had won the 56th Games. The arena had been a scorching desert, so she could fight well in the heat. She was to be watched with whips and other such devices. The District Twelve boy had made it relatively far into the Games, only to die at her hand. His name was Daniel. Daniel _Everdeen_. I raised the District Twelve respect sign for the uncle I had never known. I don’t think that was the only tragedy in my father’s family; no wonder we had found it best to not dwell on what had happened to them.

 

Peeta suggested that I probably should take a look at how a Quell works. For the first Quell, the districts had to choose their own tributes, but that victor was long dead, so we hadn’t been sent the tape. The second was Haymitch’s Games, and he did not care to watch. I understood, for I did not want to relive mine either. So I watched that tape with Mellark instead of Abernathy.

 

Haymitch said in his interview that the special Games were just as stupid as usual. That may well have put him on the Capitol’s bad side. _They had made enemies of us, but didn’t like being reminded that some of us were well aware of that._ The arena was beautiful, and Haymitch gained an early advantage by not being so stunned by it. However, it turned out that most everything in the arena was poisonous.

 

Maysilee Donner, one of Haymitch’s district partners, fought with poison darts. She saved Haymitch from a Career and they both made it to the last few tributes. She committed suicide with an arena hazard so Haymitch didn’t have to kill her. Looking at Haymitch watch her die, she was his Rue. No wonder her sister Melody, who I knew as Mrs. Undersee, was such a wreck. Maysilee bore a striking reference to her niece Madge. The jade and gold on Miss Donner’s shirt collar was all too familiar – this would be the third Games for my mockingjay pin, not the second!

 

            The final two were Haymitch and Diamond, a District One female. Haymitch led her to the edge of the arena. It seemed like he could run no farther. When they stood and fought, the gore was shocking even to another veteran of the arena. Diamond threw an axe that would indeed strike the final blow, but against her instead of Haymitch. Haymitch ducked, and it bounced off the forcefield at the edge of the arena to hit Diamond on the rebound. That sin must’ve dwarfed Haymitch’s snarky comment to Caesar - the Capitol must not have expected the border of the arena to become part of the Games.

 

Almost as soon as I met Cecelia in the Training Center, I said “At least my little girl doesn’t know yet.” And so I cried into another mother’s arms. “Gale, I mean Peeta, is so great to us,” I whispered. _Shit. Well, I had held my tongue all this time, it was bound to slip eventually._

“Y’all kissin’ cousins?” she whispered back.

Reeling from the slip, and disarmed by her joke, I figured I might as well admit the rest. “No. Peeta told his story, I think the boy’s sincere enough, that doesn’t mean I have to love him back, but it did mean I had to play along for us to make it home in one piece.” Effie was right, though, I had my first ally from another district.

 

Chrome introduced himself not long after Cecelia left. “I have a daughter too, but she’s no little girl. You might know her,” he said, finishing with a smile.

“I suppose – ‘Goldman’ does sound familiar - Gloss and Cashmere are yours?” I said, referring to the brother-sister pair that had won consecutive Games slightly over a decade ago.

“Indeed,” Chrome confirmed. “And my other child, Shine, recently turned eighteen, so it could have been him here instead of his old man if it wasn’t for this _interesting_ twist.” His tone of voice indicated he was no blind supporter of the Capitol like I expected from a Career district.

“Apparently the Games run in the family,” I observed.  
            “And my father Facet before me. Your three generations picture was a reminder of when Dad, me and Gloss stood together as Victors when the boy came home in 63,” he added. “Gloss would have volunteered to support his sister one last time had she been chosen, but our escort Stephanie got Emerald and Gloss remained at home with his sister,” he explained. “You know, you weren’t the only couple in last year’s Games.”

“Explain, shiny,” I said, curious and impatient.

“Peeta said it was love at first sight when he met you back when you were young,” he said, pointing out what everyone in Panem remembered. “To hear my Cash tell it, Glimmer felt that way as soon as she laid eyes on Cato. Cato laid her, that’s for sure. I think he had actual feelings for the girl, but was too much of a tough guy to admit it. He had a good woman, and threw her away. Peeta thought otherwise, and it’s him who went home instead of one of District Two’s deadliest tributes yet.” _Yeah, things could have been a lot different, but I wondered why he was telling me this story and what truth there was in it._ Chrome extended his story with another bombshell.“At the rate they were going, Glimmer could have been the new Victor with a new family, and Cato could have been another Adams to leave a child behind upon dying in the arena.”

“So that’s how Cato’s father died before he could marry Cato’s mother,” I guessed, recalling one of many all-too-poignant moments from the Victory Tour. “Well, they changed the rules for me and Peeta, they could have changed the rules for Glimmer and Cato.”

“No, you changed the rules on them, Girl On Fire,” he said, winking as we parted.

 

We were the only three parents in the tribute pool. “There’s no one left I love,” muttered Johanna. _Perhaps her appearance with that young man in District Seven was nothing much after all._ Something must have happened to the people she loved, as with Haymitch, and she didn’t want to create a new life vulnerable to the Capitol, either. Many victors had been coerced into that cruel practicality. It was the worst fear that can ever be hurled, fear to bring children into the world. I was usually fearless. Paradoxically, two of the few things I feared were love and bad things happening to those few people I did love, and that fear was alleviated only by an unexpected occurrence.

 

Most victors weren’t physically damaged by the Games themselves, or the Capitol medics had covered up the damage, as with Peeta’s prosthetic leg and my repaired hearing. Chaff had purposely declined a prosthetic hand so as to show the truth. However, most victors suffered painful memories of their arenas and some had wrecked themselves with the chemicals they used to cope. That made them unappealing mates, or at least made them seem like that on the surface.

 

Cinna put us in glowing instead of flaming costumes this year. That was just as well, since many other stylists had tried to imitate last year’s work. The District Three tributes wore outfits decorated with lightbulbs, which kind of made sense since that district manufactured electronics, amongst other things. However, the District Ten cows in flaming belts just looked like they were broiling themselves. Finnick, though, he wore a net that had a strategically placed knot, and not much else. The rebel in me thought about how disgusting it was that he was being paraded before leering Capitol audiences. On the other hand, I reminded myself that I was a married woman, although not to the man everyone thought.

 

Some of my fellow tributes gave up as being too far gone, but most of us took those few days in the Training Center seriously. Clove must have learned her sadism and deadly knife-throwing ability from Enobaria, or perhaps they shared a common instructor.

 

Chrome chose children over Careers, and Finnick also abandoned the favored inner districts to join us. I overheard Enobaria mutter something about traitors, and she was more right than she knew. Several other rebellious victors joined us, including Cecelia and her old mentor Woof, whatever good he could do. Something big was happening, but I didn’t know what. “Looks like the odds aren’t in the Career pack’s favor for once!” Haymitch announced loudly. More quietly, he said “We must hang together or else we’ll hang separately”. We shared a laugh at the black humor. I suppose outsiders thought the commotion was simply more drunken clowning around from Haymitch.

 

The District Eleven pair were with us too. “How have Rue and Thresh’s families been doing?” I asked Seeder.

“The Capitol let your donations through,” she reassured me. “They pretty much had to. District Eleven was already boiling over, and if those families suffered any further, it would have started a riot that not even their so-called ‘Peacekeepers’ could keep quiet. You became a symbol of much more, and so have they.”

 

The slate of individual interviews would fuel the emotions that were already running over. This year, the Capitolites felt they knew the tributes, so the Games for them were a bit like how they had always been for the Districts. Capitolites didn’t like seeing their favorites go back into the arena, but after decades of being saturated in luxury, they had no idea of how to protest.

 

I wondered what the sick minds who created the Games had been thinking. I could understand the Games as one way the Capitol furthered its brutal repression of us. Peeta and I had unintentionally subverted the Games last year. It was clear that our alliance would intentionally take that to a further level this time around. However, why would the Capitol set up their own Games to self-destruct? Perhaps they hadn’t foreseen the bond that would develop between Capitolites and victors.

 

Snow was evil through and through, yet he was ruthlessly practical, so I wondered what he thought about it. Perhaps he saw it as stated, a way to further intensify the Games as an intimidation tactic. Maybe not even the President knew what the envelopes contained, yet if he was aware, he must have reasons for either keeping an old rule or replacing something else with this. He gladly killed victors’ loved ones, and maybe this was a cover story for eliminating rebellious victors themselves. He held law over our heads and might feel bound by his predecessors’ decree, assuming this Quell was their true words.

 

Even the usually unflappable Caesar Flickerman was sad tonight. I thought he would have been numbed by the parade of soon to die youths over the decades, yet maybe the anger had built up in him over the years or perhaps he was one of many shocked by last year and then this year in particular.

 

Chrome didn’t betray any hints of our deeper conversation, saying that winning the Games was a family tradition that wasn’t about to stop now. Emerald, Enobaria, Brutus and Pearl also came off as glad to be back, although it was scary that they seemed serious. It seemed sad how even some of the luckiest of victors were reduced to reliving their glory days. Finnick, now covered by a relatively reasonable amount of fabric, dedicated a poem to his one true love. The audience reaction to “Captain Of My Heart” made the aftermath of his blown kiss on Reaping Day seem relatively mild by comparison. The sweet words seemed far more powerful than the simple gesture or skimpy clothes of a few days ago, and that spirit is what made the intended recipient truly lucky to have Finnick in her life.

 

Beetee wondered if it was legal to discard the twelve to eighteen age range set forth in the Treaty Of The Treason, doubting that even those who wrote the Quell cards had the power to do that. At seventeen, I was the only one of this year’s tributes in the usual range. On the other hand, Seeder suggested that Snow would have had the power to change such an unpopular Quell rule.

 

“Last year, I told Prim I’d win for her. Now I said that to Rue too,” I said, making that announcement much more confidently than I had last year.

            “And if you don’t make it back?” Caesar wondered.

            “I hope Peeta can one day be as happy with someone else as he was with me.”

 

            “So, Mr. Abernathy, how do you rate your chances of winning another Quarter Quell?” Caesar said, seemingly channeling his exchange with Haymitch twenty-five years ago.

            “Not very good – my district partner is my mentor’s wife, so you know where his attention is going to be,” he said flatly, simply honest according to our cover story, none of the sarcasm that had first put him in the Capitol’s crosshairs. “I think we’ve all been touched by Peeta and Katniss’ story, and I feel honored to continue supporting them” he said to deafening cheers. “Yet all of the victors, wherever they may be, are people I’ve come to know despite us coming from different districts.”

 

            When Claudius Templesmith announced his time was up, we joined him on stage instead of him leaving it. He lifted my arm and Chrome’s, I also grabbed Chaff’s wrist, and so on. The nonaligned tributes joined us; only the hardcore Careers refused to participate in our circle.

 

            Pike was Finnick’s mentor this year, and he might just know what was going on with his fellow District 4 victor. I went to the mentor room, ostensibly looking for Peeta, but turned to Pike and asked “So, who’s that girl Finnick was talking about?”

“The captain of his heart is… It’s a long story,” he answered in a _can’t explain here_ tone of voice. Once he led us into an empty hallway, he said simply “Annie Cresta”.

            “Some couple – Finnick’s bedded practically every woman in the Capitol,” I countered, surprised.

            “They have Finnick only in name – no true touch, glance or desire. Oh, so you were unaware of Snow’s secret side business? The bastard forces attractive victors into prostitution by threatening their loved ones.” _Is there no limit to that man’s evil?_

            “Our old Head Peacekeeper Cray was a two-bit pimp himself, though with threat of poverty rather than force. We needed him to look the other way on our illegal activities, but I still hated him for what he did for those girls,” I ranted.

 

            We mostly kept to ourselves during the familiar ritual of the last night and morning before traveling to the arena itself. As Peacekeepers marched us through the cavernous structures beneath the arena, I thought I don’t have much left because so much has been stolen, but I’m holding on to what I’ve been given, what I’ve kept, and what I’ve taken back. I’m not home, but I’m not dead yet.


	10. The Second Time

            The platforms lifted us into an arena that looked as if it had been made for Finnick. They were in the middle of a lake that had the Cornucopia at the center. There were thin land bridges pointing to the supplies, with two tributes on their islands between each. Jack shared my section. I heard two splashes, almost certainly the two tributes from District Four. My father had taught me how to swim in the lake back home, so I soon followed the fishing district tributes into the water. The other twenty-one would be sitting on their platforms wondering what to do.

 

            Finnick was already waiting at the Cornucopia when I pulled myself up on land. “Didn’t know District Twelve was by the sea too,” he said while handing me a bow and quiver. As I hoisted the quiver over my shoulder, it seemed to be same model as I had used last year. “Nothing but weapons,” he added, gesturing towards the Cornucopia and then pointing to his trident as another example.

 

            Some other tributes were bobbing in the water. Our purple belts served as flotation devices, though a poor substitute for being able to swim. They also made good swimsuits, a refreshing change from waterlogged shirts and pants. _I had been wrenched away from Gale, let alone able to frolic naked in the lake with him. The first of many bitter homesick feelings after the Games started._

 

The Careers were able to float over to the nearest land bridge and then begin the usual run to the Cornucopia. However, we had long since realized there wouldn’t be much usual about this year’s Games.

 

            Pearl had already grabbed a spear and went off looking to use it. Emerald, Enobaria and Brutus, the other Careers, made it to the Cornucopia while we were off trying to find them.

 

Enobaria knifed Jack while he was still on his platform. I suppose it was an act of defiance for the District Five drunk to not participate in the show. Thresh had done something similar last year with his surly attitude before the Games and hiding out during them. I suppose that for once it was a good thing Woof was a confused old man so he didn’t know what hit him, but I knew it all too well – Emerald floated up to his platform and hacked him apart with a machete, and then kicked the corpse into the water, the blue turning red.

 

Finnick seemed to resent having to draw blood as he ran his trident through old man Harvest. Pearl seemed to positively enjoy it, jamming her spear in the belly of the District Ten Annie until it came out the back. I felt compelled to take my first shot. Perhaps the poetic justice of an arrowhead in her gut would be the last thing Pearl understood.

 

Finnick searched the Cornucopia for anything but weapons while I stood guard at its mouth. It turned out there was nothing in the immediate vicinity for me to guard against while Finnick did his work. “The odds are not in our favor,” Finnick whispered to me upon his return.

 

Enobaria had found something to eat and drink, as it were, in the most disgusting way imaginable. She chased down Seeder, and Enobaria bared her teeth, using them to rip Seeder’s throat open. However, unlike Pearl, this time my retaliatory arrow fell harmlessly in the water. Last year, that would have been one twelfth of my ammunition gone, but the Gamemakers had assured weaponry wouldn’t be a problem this year.

 

That accounted for the ninth and final cannon of the bloodbath. Two different alliances split off from the Cornucopia; all my allies except for Seeder had survived. I couldn’t put Seeder’s brutal death out of my mind, even after all the things I’d been through. “Sweetheart,” Haymitch started, “that’s how she killed in her original Games, and she wanted to treat the audience to her signature move.” The Careers undoubtedly relished reliving their glory days, even though one of them already lived no longer. Just as surely as the drug-addled old-timers, it highlighted the Games as a hollow victory, lives reduced to a few weeks in a past summer as well as lives ended.  
  
            “Even I can’t drink salt water,” Finnick muttered, announcing our first problem related to the lack of anything besides weapons in the Cornucopia.

 

The beach was ringed by a forest of trees unlike any I’d ever seen before. Away from the lake breeze, the arena became stifling hot. That would only magnify the problem of the lack of fresh water, and we couldn’t drink the humidity, as thick as it felt. Finnick turned back toward the beach to use a trident for its intended purpose as a fishing spear.

 

I tracked some ratlike creatures through the trees. They must be drinking form somewhere, but I was unable to find it. “It’s the Hunger Games, not the Thirst Games!” I shouted after losing a trail yet again. Peeta took this as a cue to drop a silver parachute bearing a bottle of water. Even with the sponsor appeal of the star-crossed lover new mother, he could only afford this for so long.

            Chaff described the contents as a “clear” _sniff sniff_ “nonalcoholic liquid”, and he was one of the few allies I shared the bottle with.

 

It seemed the contents barely moistened our throats, but it would stave off the kind of trouble I encountered early in last year’s Games. Peeta would remember that, and Haymitch’s strategy of sending coded messages with sponsor gifts. I took this to mean that there was no water nearby.

 

As part of the act, the ‘devoted husband’ would do anything to get ‘his wife’ back, but I felt Peeta would be doing all he could anyway. He was too nice to spite me over choosing Gale; as much as I loved the boy with the snares, I wondered if his temper would have run counter to that in an opposite situation.

 

Chrome had a parent and two children with victor money, not to mention his own savings, so water for him was not far behind. He shared his with Finnick and the pair from Three. Finnick reciprocated with some of his catch from fishing in the lake.

 

The steep hill as we spread out from the Cornucopia further amplified the dehydration. However, we reached the border force field relatively quickly, so this arena must be particularly small. Appropriately, Haymitch was the first one to cook a piece of fish by throwing it against the energy barrier. We couldn’t much eat it raw, which would have been done out of delirium and perhaps causing illness driving us to further madness. In this dampness, we couldn’t much get a fire started. In this heat, we couldn’t bear it.

 

The late-night list of the lives ended was another all-too-familiar part of this ritual. _District Four, Pearl_ “Frankly, she deserved that,” Finnick announced. _As with Marvel last year, I had found myself instinctively and brutally avenging someone a Career slaughtered._

 _District Five, Jack._ “And now his drink is finished. Last call, buddy, last call!” Haymitch chimed in, remembering that he was supposed to act like Panem’s favorite sloppy drunk. Chaff concurred by pumping his one remaining fist. Haymitch took credit for _District Six, Jet._ “I am sober enough to use a knife, thankyouverymuch”.

 _District Seven, Pine._ “He wasn’t much, but he was from home,” Johanna sarcastically offered about her district partner.

_District Eight, Woof. District Nine, Harvest. District Ten, Annie Hickok. District Ten, Bill. District Eleven, Seeder._

The infernal anthem was soon replaced by a much louder sound, a crack of thunder, followed by lightning. _But without rain. Of course._ Besides the obvious practical concern, the lack of precipitation highlighted the fakery of the Games. That was off in the distance, so we pushed the concern from our minds, not being the ones to worry about getting zapped.

 

Finnick leaned in to whisper to me, something that had to be said in hushed tones. “Even thought that wasn’t my Annie, Ms. Hickok’s brutal death was still meant for me,” Finnick suggested. “Pearl was one of many women jealous that I’d rather have ‘crazy Cresta’, he began to explain, saying those last two words as sarcastically as the low volume allowed. “Sure, my Annie’s different, but she’s the sweetest gal in the world. People like Pearl are the ones who are really out of their minds.”

 

Resting fitfully, I was roused about three hours later, by the boom of a cannon. I looked around our makeshift camp to make sure it was none of ours, and then took watch for the rest of the night. That night ended with explosions at dawn, reminding my ears of the detonation of Career supplies last year. The bombs kept on going off for an hour. Haymitch and Chaff took the brunt of the shrapnel, positioning themselves so I didn’t have to. They were bleeding, but were able to stagger out of camp with us.

 

A couple hours after noon, we ran into a corrosive fog. That was too much for the wounded Chaff. A cannon boomed, the first I recalled since the one that woke me up, I suppose that meant we were down to thirteen. The survivors ran for the lake to wash off the residue. It stung like hell, but that was better than following Chaff into a tribute cemetery. On the beach, Finnick observed by the smoothed sand and shells stranded on the shore that a big wave must’ve hit recently. “Maybe that was the splashing we heard a few hours ago,” I suggested, and Finnick agreed.

 

The Careers must’ve seen us on the beach, and came charging out of the odd forest like the vicious warriors they were. Enobaria began by throwing knives as I loosed arrows, but the worst that came of it were some scratches. As they closed the distance, Johanna conserved her axes and Chrome his spears.

Wiress, Beetee and Cecelia weren’t fighters, having won their Games in other ways, so they stood at the back of our group. Haymitch happened to be in front and intended to stab Brutus as he came down the hill but before he drew his sword. However, he lost his balance, for real and not a fake drunken stumble. Brutus was able to catch the wrist of his would-be attacker, grabbing the top of the big knife handle, the scrapes from the bottom of the blade likely meaning little to nothing to him. Haymitch found his own weapon turned on him, leaving a nasty gash up his arm that I knew there was no recovering from.

 

He turned to me with enough strength to mouth a few words. “You still live, and I died sober,” I believe I saw.

 

There was no time to mourn, even as simple as the District Twelve respect sign or a comment about his last drink (actually taken months ago). Brutus was coming for me, ducking my arrows. This quiver was empty, with no time to retrieve arrows or go grab another full one from the Cornucopia. He was low to the ground, about to come up and stab me with the same knife, when I heard a far heavier piece of steel come down. One of Johanna’s axes had bloodily pinned his hand.

 

“That was bravely done,” I told her.

“You don’t gotta thank me for killing Careers. I do that my own damn self,” she answered. We couldn’t do that to the other two, though. Enobaria, fighting from a distance, found it easiest to retreat. I don’t know how Emerald had escaped after closing in to draw her blade.

 

It was Stephanie, the pretty District Five woman, who had evidently died the first of today’s four deaths. That left fellow beauty Winnow McCormick of District Nine and the morphling-ravaged Megan Hayes of District Six as the only remaining unaligned tributes.

 

The recap was followed by another burst of lightning. This was a pattern, and Wiress noticed it. “Tick tock, this is a clock.”


	11. The Eleventh Hour

            The arena began to spin after Wiress announced her realization of the arena structure. Each hazard hit one twelfth of the arena every hour. Now I couldn’t tell what time it was. If Haymitch was still living, or Chaff, I could’ve gotten the sensation compared to a hangover.

 

Hangover or not, it was taking a day to wear off. At least Enobaria and Emerald couldn’t find us, but we couldn’t find them. Had they also figured out that the arena was clock-themed?

 

The dawn explosions were, like most alarm clocks, annoying. Yet as alarm clocks are wont to do, it didn’t go off so that we could hear it.

 

We were awoken in a sky that was already light, by charging creatures that made the muttations from last year look like rats by comparison. These were also four-legged and rearing on their hind legs to attack with tooth and claw, but even bigger than last year’s. However, there were several of us versus a few of them instead of the other way around. We attacked the beasts with pointed sticks. While I launched small ones from bows, Chrome threw large ones at them. Johanna stood ready with axe and Finnick with trident for those that drew closer. We all survived that one somehow, but the incident was a reminder that Beetee, Wiress and Cecelia weren’t fighters per se, having won their Games by unarmed cleverness.

 

After that, everyone was glad to retreat to the beach for most of the rest of the morning. However, the wave was coming any time now, so we retreated into the jungle before the next clock chime.

 

We remembered how the lightning always struck a tree at the edge of the arena. We looked around for the tree to figure out the time again, yet I counted several. Was I seeing things or did the arena designers put in decoy trees for exactly this purpose?

 

            As we retreated into the jungle, the Careers took the chance to avail themselves of the lake. Aquatic geniuses like Finnick caught loads of seafood, but you didn’t need to be an expert to pull in something.

 

            Wiress carried a spool of thin wire from the Cornucopia. I didn’t know what it was for, but I did know that her and her friend and district partner would be the ones to figure out a use for it. Beetee’s idea was to run a length from the lightning tree to the water. This would kill off the lake’s food supply, but Finnick was building us enough of a stockpile, we hoped.

 

Once we figured out the right tree, we’d tie an end of the wire to the tree and the other end to one of my arrow shafts. Beetee’s real plan was to overload the generators that powered the arena forcefield; that soon became clear enough. I could and would shoot up into the sky instead of down into the lake.

 

At noon on the third day, we knew what tree to head towards. Finnick and I led the way after that round of the storm cleared. He knew the best knots to tie; I was the best climber. I simply had to slip his loop around a branch and tighten it. Our comrades weren’t far behind us, but there were no Careers violently interrupting our path up the hill. The end was secured

 

            At noon on the fourth day, our setup worked, although we’d have to put up another strand. Winnow was, well, shocked when investigating the curious line coming from the lightning tree. She died now, but the Capitol regime would die from the bursts of electricity that came on midnight of the fifth day.

 

It turned out Emerald and Enobaria would die first. The late evening iteration of the wave chased them away from the lake. Enobaria charged with knives flying, but Finnick dodged them, proving that his flexibility wasn’t quite limited to the water. Enobaria was not so agile, the three prongs of Finnick’s trident landing squarely in her chest. Chrome faced down his district partner with javelin, also striking home.

 

Now the electrical trap would appear like a way to flush out Megan of District Six, or perhaps a catalyst for infighting amongst ourselves. We got in place near the lightning tree and I heard insect-like noises coming from the next sector over, a swarm of nasty muttations, no doubt. Fortunately, we didn’t have to find out what those or most of the other sectors did.

 

My arrow flew with wire attached as smoothly as had any of my shots with plain arrows. Electricity jumped from the tree to traverse the wire, son reaching the shaft and arrowhead lodged in the border of the arena. The sparks were blinding and the explosion deafening as the forcefield flickered out and shimmered away.

 

            I was stunned as I barely recognized a hovercraft coming for me. A public execution for treason if I’m lucky, Avoxing or even crueler tortures if I’m not.

 

            I was drawn out of my stupor by the face and voice most familiar to me; Gale definitely wouldn’t have been taken by the Capitol alive. Gale walked to me to begin an explanation I sorely needed. “Ehh, Catnip, turns out there was a rebellion a lot more organized than just my rants in the woods.”

            “Bet you’re real happy about that, Gale,” I smiled. “I must have won the Games if I’m seeing you again.”

“The Head Gamemaker is a rebel – can you believe it?” Gale explained. “We also got Chrome, Finnick and Cecelia, but the Capitol got Beetee, Wiress, Johanna and Megan.”

 

            “Are our families safe back in District Twelve?” I asked hopefully.

“They’re safe, but not in District Twelve,” he answered. My hope was dashed by his body language as he continued his answer. _I knew the look in his eyes when going in for a kill._ “Katniss, there is no District Twelve.”

            _I sat there in further shock._ “Nothing?”

            “Capitol hovercraft firebombed the entire district. Thousands lay dead. I was able to evacuate only a few hundred, including all of our own families.” He smiled as much as possible given the situation as he held out Rue. _As selfish as it was, I was relieved to see our child amongst the living, and know the rest of our families were somewhere safe._ I took her into my arms. _How many parents had empty arms? How many babies had no arms to turn to?_

Peeta had left the Capitol along with the rebel plants there. Gale turned to him next. “Peeta, your father was the only Mellark to make it out alive.”

            “Paul is dead?” was Peeta’s first response once the sobs subsided.

            “Yes,” Gale replied sadly.

That was Peeta’s father’s brother, one of the few relatives bread boy had liked. Mellarks good and evil had joined Paul in the flames. “Even my mother didn’t deserve to die like that, let alone Paul or my brothers.” I even let Peeta cry on my shoulder, and Gale knew better than to say anything about that.

 

“I needed to see you and our daughter, but where is everybody else?” I asked of Gale.

“District Thirteen is real, Catnip. They’ve been plotting revenge against the Capitol for a long time,” he answered with great satisfaction.

“But I thought they were destroyed during the Dark Days,” I said, repeating a line that now felt like just another dose of Capitol propaganda.

“The Capitol agreed to leave them alone if they’d pretend as much,” Gale explained.

“Abandoned us, it sounds like,” I muttered.

“You learned well, Catnip,” Gale said enthusiastically. “The Dark Days _were_ when the light of freedom was brutally extinguished. I’m not sure what part District Thirteen played in that, but they’re here for us now, the enemy of my enemy is my friend, this may be our best chance to actually take down the Capitol,” Gale rambled.

“While we were waiting at the lake, I told everybody the truth,” Gale offered. “I held up Rue and said _I am her father. I’m Katniss’ real star-crossed lover. As you can see, trying to appease the Capitol does no good, so here’s one truth._ Those in the know confirmed it. It was my proudest moment, standing there with the refugees, especially when one of them was the other most important girl in my life.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And so ends an alternate version of Catching Fire, in some ways very different and in other ways very similar. I have a sequel planned that parallels Mockingjay in a similar manner, but I’ll work on some of my other stories and timelines for now.


End file.
